Shinigami's Touch
by Othala
Summary: Dealing with beings not from this plane of existence changes humans. Some changes are small, others big, easy to recognise or even never noticed till ones death. Naruto has to live with this situation after fully awakening one such change. ABANDONED
1. Prologue

Shinigami's Touch

Prologue

Heavy mist suddenly started to lift from the bridge. Red liquid slowly dropped down into the sea. Zabuza stared at the mercenaries Gatou had hired on last time before he fell to the ground, having lost to much blood to stay upright.

Zabuza could hear the thugs scream something or other about killing a meal ticket and run away from him. His vision was already blurry as he felt his life leave him. 'At least I avenged Haku', were his predominant thoughts.

He could hear yelling in the distance and not long after again running feet of a hundred man. He felt oddly at peace with the knowledge that he was going to die, but who was he to ask? The mask of a bloodthirsty killer he had cultivated kept people at a distance – who was to blame them. Looking back his plans to kill the Mizukage seemed somewhat ambitious – no matter how strong he was he could not compete with someone worthy of the title of Shadow and add the little known fact that Yagura was a Jinchuuriki … well you know. What did pain him somehow was the knowledge that Haku left this world as well into the realm of the Shinigami, but then again he hoped he could find the peace there that he lacked in this life.

So he lie there, dying and actually not fearing what was to come when a blurry shape came into view. He summoned what was left of his strength as the figure started pulling blades out of his back. "Can you do one last thing for me?", he asked the man with one red and one black, until a short time ago a enemy out for his blood. Kakashi shrugged, pulled his headband over his red eye and said "Sure". "I want to see his face one last time." Kakashi didn't answer but picked him up and carried him over to where Haku lay. As he slowly walked over Zabuza closed his eyes. 'Might as well name a Konoha shinobi my successor as a swordsman, just to spite the Mizukage', he thought trying to chuckle but coming out as a rough cough.

When he was finally laid down beside a still warm body the daemon of the Mist mutter a thanks. Slowly he brought his hand up to his long time companions face. Opening his eyes one last time he look at him, noticing his already closed eyes, as if he was only sleeping, but the bloodstains on his cloths and and the gaping wound right over his heart belied the notion. 'Well the Chidori was aimed at my heart and not his...' "If only, if only I could go to the same place as you...", he whispered.

Behind him he heard footsteps again and heard metal scrap against the surface of the bridge. He didn't turn and really didn't think things through at the moment but said: "Might as well keep the blade brat, just do me proud." He could hear the boy answer something but it did no longer register. The world started to fade, the view of Haku's peaceful face the last thing in his mind before everything went black.

* * *

Naruto stared down at the two bodies. A young boy barely older than himself, with a similar past – scolded and shunned over something they had no control over. The other who seemed to be a heartless killer at first, but he had seen the tears, real tears after he had seen the one person that he was attached to. Maybe he wasn't what some people consider a perfect shinobi – emotionless killing machines – but just good at hiding his emotions. He stammered out some thanks after the missing-nin from Hidden Mist told him to hold onto his enormous sword, but then realised that even a daemon could draw his last breath. Slowly he placed his hand on Zabuza's head and closed his eyes and then just for good matter put his other hand over Haku's eyes. "May you find peace in death – both of you", the blond boy muttered silently.

Time seemed to slow down as snow poured from the heavens around him as he simply sat there doing nothing, for once being silent and thinking things over. He then realised something: Maybe it really was worth giving his life for those precious to someone than hide and have to grieve over their death. Suddenly his vision began to blur and fade into black.

* * *

Haku awoke surprised and shot up from where he was lying. 'A sewer?', shot through his mind 'This isn't what I suspected when I died – or did I?' He noticed that he was sitting in muddy water. Standing up and looking around he noticed Zabuza only a few meter away form him blinking in surprise as he looked at the low, grimy ceiling. "Well this certainly wasn't what I expected.", the older man snorted. "I certainly didn't expect you to follow me into death.", Haku answered sounding accusing. It was funny to see the swordsman's head whip around as fast as he did. "Haku?", he breathed out. The missing-nin was up almost too fast to follow and embarrassed the younger. "Well it certainly is good seeing you again Zabuza, but why aren't we dead and where are we?", Haku asked. "I have no idea about the first thing, but until moments ago I was very certain that both of you were dead and I alive, but I can be wrong about that. About the second – well I have an idea, but ain't sure about it", stated a voice behind them. Both of them turn faster that seemed possible to see a young boy in awful orange jumpsuit and with blond hair. "Naruto? Well this place seemed a bit dingy at least your jumpsuit gives it some colour...", Haku answered. "Where do you think we are?", Zabuza asked the blond. Naruto answered: "Well I ain't sure but I am sure that this sewer is the same place I found that damned furball." "Furball?", Zabuza wanted to know. Naruto made an inviting hand sign and said: "Just follow me."

They walked through the sewer what seemed hours, each step fallowed by the sound of water splashing which was followed by an echo, water dropping from the pipes overhead, which seemed to give of an odd glow that left shadows everywhere jet nothing apart the three humans seemed to even move here, no rats or other critters, what seemed odd for such an baldy kept place.

Slowly an red glow seemed to add to the weird blue-grey light. Haku and Zabuza followed the young Genin from time to time sending looks at each other. Naruto on the other hand did not notice those glances, but seemed oddly nervous too.

He suddenly seemed to halt right before a door through which the red glow seemed to originate from. "You really want to know?" he asked the other two. Both former inhabitants form Mist just nodded and followed him into the room.

Large bars taller then the tallest tree they ever came apart seemed to stretch to an extremely high ceiling compared to the rest of the sewer. In the middle was a small paper tag with seal inscribed on it. The glow could be seen within the cage, thou all of them were unable to see whatever occupied the prison.

"Might I introduce" Naruto said, acting like a showman announcing an act "the great and mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune, though he got bested by a human and is therefore quiet grumpy." The last part was only a whisper his two companions could barely hear. "Oy! Show yourself furball – we ain't here for nothing ya know? And some answers would be nice too – seeing as you have thousands of years of experience and seem to think a lot of yourself!", Naruto shouted challenging. Not surprising a large body slammed into the bars shaking the whole chamber. "Tone it down weakling. You are nothing to me!" growled the angry attacker out.

Haku and Zabuza both had their jaws hanging at the astonishing display of disrespect towards the mighty beast. After all the fox was known to have flooded more than one country only using one of his tails by causing an tsunami. Not to mention what the beast could do with all of his tails. "So this was that powerful chakra we felt during the fight..." Zabuza mused.

"Well this is an interesting development. I was not sure about a few of my observations, but this seems to confirm it...", the giant red fox mused swishing his tails around. "It appears the sealing changed you in ways never intended to – but that can happen with beings touched by the Lords of the Realms, let alone the gods... Since I never had much dealings with the dead it appears the Shinigami's presence around you at the day of your birth left some traces." The fox drew out the last word as if caught deep in thinking. His audience glanced at each other confused not knowing what to make of the words of the fox.

Suddenly Naruto interjected: "This seems to be my mind or something like that – but that still doesn't explain you coming here." He pointed at Zabuza and Haku. The other two shinobi did not seem to be any more assured by this declaration. The fox on the other hand said: "Quiet right there – something like that. More like an accurate projection of your whole body and mind with us at the moment being located near your stomach where the seal is physically located. As for why those two others are here – the presence of higher beings – what you know as daemons, summons, guardians, gods and others – can change humans. Sometimes only the one in his presence, other times selected or all of his descendants as well. I think you have taken to call such a gift a Bloodline or a Bloodline limit. You, kit, seem to have gained the Shinigami's ability to 'devour' souls and my enhanced healing as well as a few other quirks, good luck figuring them out. I hope their presence does some good. I need a strong vessel after all. For one it would not look good among the other higher beings if my vessel was weak and reflect badly. The fact that the stronger you are, the more of my chakra you can call upon without dying or both of us loosing control, should also be considered. And finally I am somewhat in a clinch. I am yet to figure out how to get out of this seal. Yes humans have tried to seal me before, all of them failed and I destroyed them all, yet this seal is different. It connects our souls and the first time in many a thousand a years I am somewhat mortal. If you dare to die and pull me with you before I figure out how to get out of this I will make sure to torture your soul into eternity. Now get out of here, I need to think"

Surprised at the bulk of information the fox offered all three shinobi left the chamber rather quickly. "So this means we are stuck with you, at least until you die?", asked Haku being the first to break the silence. "Alright, seems as if I get to train my successor anyway. We will try to find our way around, looking for any major problems in this dump your body seems to be. If we can we will try to find some memories of your previous training, right Haku?", Zabuza said rather enthusiastic considering the situation. "You think you can come in here and leave at will?" he then asked Naruto, who in turn nodded, but didn't seem to be to sure of himself. "Then let us get this started." Zabuza exclaimed grinning. "I don't know how time in here is related to outside, but I think you should tell that Sensei of yours that you want to be alone for a while, thinking things over." Naruto nodded again and then seemed to fade. Zabuza then sighted: "Well, lets see where the road will take us." Haku nodded and agreed as both of them slowly started to walk in a direction they assumed would lead them to the represent of the mind, while still being confused as hell about their situation.

* * *

Naruto blinked startled by a snowflake that landed on his nose. He looked down on the two corpse on his feet and smiled sadly. He pulled his hands of their bodies and turned towards the crowd of villagers and his teacher. Somewhere in the background he heard Sakura loudly fussing over an injured, but alive Sasuke and said boy complaining about her being heavy, for whatever reason. Naruto was certain that if he even so much as hinted something on Sakura's weight he would already be knocked out by her.

Slowly he got up and walked towards the villagers who were already starting to return to the settlement. He did not look Kakashi in his eyes but kept them on the retreating backs of the villagers. "Sensei", he started "is it OK if I stay alone for a while, thinking things over?" The masked Jounin seemed surprised, but then shrugged, pulled his orange book out and said: "Whatever, you've got burial detail then. Just make sure you don't get killed by those thugs who certainly are still around and be at Tazuna's house for dinner." Naruto grinned, but if one looked you could easily figure it out as fake and said: "Believe it!" Kakashi not even sparing a glance at the blonde turned and walked away, picking Sasuke up, barely stopping and went in the direction of the bridge builder's house. Sakura followed them like a puppy.

Naruto glanced down, and mused: " It's just us three again, isn't it?" He chucked as he created a few clones and piked up two corpse and a heavy blade. Soon some orange figures could be seen disappearing into the forest.

* * *

AN: This is my first attempt to fanfiction, to be honest this is my first fictional text written in six or seven years. I try my best, but do not resist writing constructive reviews. I have the story planed out till after the chunin exams in more or less detail, and have a very rough idea where this will go afterwards.

For all who expect fast updates and long texts I must disappoint. I write when I have time and inspiration, but then again real life might have a way to butt in anytime.

Of course I am greatly influenced by what I read, but I try to include my own unique concepts and ideas into the story. If I do directly copy something I will mention this and also ask for the authors permission, but it is possible that I forget that, I read the same idea from an different author or even had the same insane thoughts than someone else. So if there are complains I will look into them and if necessary give the rightful credit.

Also I have to admit that I do not speak English as my native language, that would be German, so my choice of words, spelling and grammar might be off for some things. If you can point me those things out I will try to correct those (thou it might take a while).


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Naruto slowly walked into the forest and so unlike him silent and deep in thought. Behind him walked a few Shadow Clones carrying two bodies and a sword too big for one of them to lift alone equally silent. While the second meeting with the fox this day had answered some questions the blond boy was still confused as hell. Bloodline limits as a result of higher beings interacting with humans? It did seem a bit far fetched, but on the other hand it somehow made more sense than the explanation he heard of Kakashi about superior genetics and breeding.

He let his feet carry him until he suddenly looked up. He was on the clearing where he first met Haku. 'Fitting' he thought, mentioned his clones to drop their burden and start digging two graves.

* * *

The original then decided, that he should try to talk to his two new tenants. Therefore he sat against a tree and tried to meditate as Iruka once explained to him. His old teacher said it would help calm him down, but the young hyperactive boy never listened and was already planing his next prank.

'Sitting still and clear your mind...', Naruto remembered Iruka's words, 'Well that could take a while.' Meanwhile his clones were busy digging two graves.

In a grimy sewer two figures were slowly making their way towards a goal they weren't even sure existed. "This is so weird" Haku muttered. Zabuza snorted "Yeah, well it is not as if we could get out of here any time soon, or do you have a better idea." Around them water was dripping from the pipes overhead and a strange blue-grey light pulsed. Every minute or so it was interrupted by a red pulse. It was odd, from time to time they seemed to come across small cracks in the walls and ceiling, but every time the red light that they assumed was the fox's chakra pulsed they seemed to close a little bit more.

"I don't even want to know what someone has to go through that his body and mind are represented by something like this." Zabuza interjected some time later. "But is it just me or has the blue light that I assume is his chakra started to pulse faster since the brat left?" "Now that you mention it, I think you are right" Haku answered. "Maybe time in here is slower as long as he is here himself, after all they say the mind works faster than the body." "Might be" Zabuza answered.

They walked in silence each mulling over their new situation. They came across side corridors of varying size and shape, some big enough that even the fox would be able to get through, some small enough for on chakra 'pipe' to fit in. Tunnels with a multitude of pipes, some with non at all. Once they could even see what seemed to be a large reservoir of chakra down one of the biggest paths they came across.

After a long time of walking they found something new. A blob of what seemed to be black ink was warped around what seemed to be the main chakra pipe leading in their direction. It neither felt right or wrong, but somewhat foreign, as if it was not meant to be there. Even the Kyuubi's chakra did not seem so out of place as this black blob. What was even more curious was the fact that the pipe was extremely thick before entering the blob but come out again not even a quarter of its extent. They could see water coming out of the pipe and slowly running down the wall, feeding to the ever present ankle deep water on the floor. From the blob small strands of black extended to various other pipes around the main one as well. Though those seemed to be affected by the tailed beast's chakra like the cracks in the wall and unlike the blob itself, but those strands regenerated themselves quiet fast, until the next red pulse reduced them.

"We should get rid of that." Zabuza stated.

"But we don't even know what it is." Haku replied.

"Yeah, but so out of place as this here feels I'd rather get rid of it fast than let it here."

"Maybe we should ask the fox about it, he seemed rather knowledgeable."

"I don't think he will help, even if he wasn't as forceful as possible, I don't think he will be in a good mood if we interrupt his thinking he seems to want to do."

"Point, so how do you want to remove this?"

"I thought about just cutting it down."

"And if we hurt Naruto?"

"I heard the fox say something about regeneration, he will survive."

"That's cold."

"I'm a shinobi, a trained killer, that's how I was raised."

"I think it would be better to wait until Naruto comes back."

"Whatever you think." Zabuza said, sat down against the wall where he could keep an eye on the black blob and lost himself in thought.

Haku slide down the wall beside him. While thinking he unconsciously formed a snow flak in his hand. "Well seems at last as is our chakra is still somewhat working" the young man said. The Daemon of the Mist just grunted and kept his eyes closed.

* * *

The noises of the forest had ceased and he could hear water dripping. Slowly the blonde opened his eyes and saw two dead people sitting only a few meters away from him. A sad smile formed on his lips and then he asked: "What are you waiting for here?" The swordsman opened his eyes and looked at him, while the ice manipulator let the ice crystal on the palm on his hand fade into water.

"You probably want to get rid of whatever this is." Zabuza slowly stated while mentioning to the black blob not far above Naruto's head. While the duo from Mist slowly started to stand Naruto looked thoughtful onto the inky substance.

"Well, we could cut it down, but I don't know anything that could destroy it." Naruto then answered. Zabuza nodded and replied: "I wanted to do the same thing but Haku wanted to wait for you. You agree that we have to get rid of it, don't you? To destroy it... well I hope that low level camping fire technique I once learned will be sufficient." "Well I can feel that this doesn't belong here. And since this is a represents my body anything that doesn't belong here shouldn't be here." the Genin answered. Zabuza nodded as Naruto already formed Shadow Clones to complete the task. First the strands were cut and the anchor points on the smaller pipes started to wither away. The original Naruto winced in pain and tried to see what hurt on the back of his neck.

The older man took a look on it and voiced his observation: "That's a seal on your neck, no idea what it does though. The parts that I recognise are some kind of suppressant seal – similar to those used by ANBU to suppress a captives chakra – and what is a trigger for the seal to destroy when the person it is put on dies. Seen similar ones on the seals that are sometimes used for execution – they drain your chakra until you fall over dead and then the seal destroys itself. Nasty seals, those are, unfortunately they won't even work on a Genin in the field, they take simply to long to work if not drawn on bare skin in great number."

"So someone put a suppressant seal of some kind on my neck, it is represented by this blob in my mind, it hurts to remove and if I die nobody will ever find anything because it would self-destruct?" Naruto asked for confirmation. The missing-nin just nodded in response. "Well let's get rid of it, even if it hurts... Can't have something limiting me, even if it hurts. "

The clones proceeded by chopping of pieces of the blob and threw them down where Zabuza incarcerated them with a low level fire technique. Thou it hurt like a bitch, at least in Naruto's mind – and mind you every cut was more painful than being hit with a senbon by Haku – but he gritted his teeth and watched his clones continue.

After about half of the mass was removed the once black inked seal on the base of his neck started to glow orange and the pain no longer subsided between cuts, but stayed permanent. Naruto closed his eyes and tried to endure the pain when he suddenly heard the noise of a clone popping. The blonds eyes shot open and when suddenly the memory of being impaled by some kind of spike coming out of the mass flooded his mind he fell backwards onto his ass. "Well that was surprising" he said as he formed another pair of Clones, his discovery about Shadow Clones shoved into the back of his head. "Seems as if this thing doesn't want to go without a fight, now does it?"

The black mass started to fight back more and more, impaling Clones, trying to swallow clones a whole, what seemed to be absorbing chakra form the pipes, but in the end it fell to an endless supply of Shadow Clones.

Naruto sat down at the verge of tears. The removal of the seal had hurt pretty bad, but he didn't want to seem weak in front of his friend Haku and the man who promised him to help train. Suddenly a bright pulse of blue chakra raced through the hallways fallowed narrowly by a equally bright red pulse. Naruto one again gripped the back of his neck and started screaming – both in what he for easy description decided to call mindscape, even if it was according to the fox not really that, and the real world.

* * *

"Well, seems as if there was some backslash from removing that seal in an unorthodox way." Zabuza mused as he looked upon the screaming form of the blond boy that slowly started to fade from their presence. "Ah there he is again, the bloodthirsty Daemon of the Mist, and here I thought you changed Zabuza-sama." Haku answered with mirth laced in his voice. "Well I guess death promoted me to drop my mask, don't you think that is possible, my loyal tool?" the missing-nin answered equally amused. "Now we have to wait for the brat to come back, well, we'll see if there is something different about him."

"You've noticed that the pulses of light now come in shorter intervals again." Haku then wanted to know. "Yeah, sure did", Zabuza replied. "And those pipes beyond what was the seal have changed as well. They now continue equally thick than up to here. Less liquid is leaking as well, might as well get those caves here dry sometime in the future." "Should we wait here or go further in that direction?" Haku asked a bit unsure. "Might as well get going" answered the swordsman carelessly.

Soon after they entered a high hall, that was much better lit than anything they had come across until now in this strange world that represented Naruto's body and mind. Oddly there was another thing different in here. "Doors? Have you seen doors anywhere else in here?" Zabuza demanded to know. Haku continued to look around. In the middle of the room was a strange crystal that seemed to glow in strange colours every now and then. On the ceiling, which he believed to even taller than the one in Kyuubi's prison was a large assortment of pipes in all shapes and forms, some hanging that low that someone twice Zabuza's height could have possible reached it. Near the entrance of the large corridor they walked to come here some of the smaller pipes that came form there went down the walls and to the floor. 'Electric cable? Well, just another oddity, electric cable that works in ankle deep water.' the fake hunter-nin thought. And truly, massive amounts of cable went all around the room crossing each other that at some places around the crystal it was nearly stacked up to a meter in height. The doors along the circular room each held held some type of symbol, but all were locked with large iron chains. Well all except two. 'Can it be?' Haku thought as he walked nearer. "Zabuza, you might want to see this." he called out. Zabuza, having checked the strength of one of the chains and failing slowly walked over to him not saying a word. Standing behind Haku he scanned the doors that got his partner all exited over. 'No chains – good point, might as well be something useful. Now for the symbol... well, an ice crystal in all its perfection and a sword hardly anybody would be able to carry. Well, I never was one to back down so I might as well go forward' the Daemon of the Mist thought.

Entering the room he saw blades strew all over, some rust, some shiny new, some covered in blood and gore, some encased by various elements and many more. Blades in all shapes and sizes, from small Tanto's over Kodachi's to Katana's, straight bladed western style swords, even the odd Naginata. After a while he decided to pick up a weapon covered in blood that oddly resembled his own Decapitating Carving Knife, but was not quiet the same. Fast flashes of memories played themselves in front of his eyes, the day he had first met his partner and student Haku back in Hidden Mist. Slowly he sorted through the swords and realised that each and everyone represented a memory of his life. When he figured out the schemata of the blades appearance in relevance against the memory they represented he started to smile and purposefully began looking for a few of the best memories of his life. An observer would have remarked that about half of those memories consisted of fights where he could very well have lost said life.

* * *

Haku meanwhile entered the room beside the one Zabuza went into. Immediately his eyes were drawn towards a blood red ice crystal floating in the middle of the room. Floating on the young man's eye-level it nearly reached the ceiling. He could see a blue substance constantly dripping form the crystal into a basin beneath.

The fake hunter-nin walked closer mesmerised by the sight of the crystal, reflecting the light. When he put his hand onto the middle of the six pronged shape he suddenly felt a rush of cold going through himself, like when he was using his bloodline. Haku smiled.

He then proceeded to look around the room. Little snow flakes and ice crystals were lying and floating around everywhere. Deciding to touch one directly beside the big red crystal in the middle of the room Haku could observe his first meeting with Naruto in the forest once again. Again a small smile formed on the boys face.

Proceeding he touched more and more of the various frozen objects in the room, finding them all to be memories of various things. To Haku's misfortune most of those memories included pain and suffering, his own as well as that of others.

Deciding it was enough for now, he slowly left the room.

* * *

The human body is highly resistant and adaptable to most outside forces. If you put strain on one part it proceeds to grow stronger. An obvious example would be a muscle that grows stronger if it is often used. If additional strain is added this process can be sped up even more. Good examples would be eyes that adapt to less light by adding shades or muscles that grow even faster by adding weights. Now the same is true with other parts of the body. If a nerve cluster is prevented from relying information this would cause problems for many a people, because the human adult is totally unable to form new nerve strand and a child's body is only limited able to do so. Not so if the person in question possesses a rare regeneration bloodline and has an entity sealed within himself that has curious side effects when humans are prolonged exposed to it. Similar things are true if parts of the body are deprived of various necessaries like oxygen from the bloodstream or chakra, the very life force itself. If a body part has to work with only low levels of those supplies they normally die. Simple as that. If though said person has one of the tail beasts interconnected with ones very soul, then survival is possible, if only because said semi-immortal being is too stubborn to die. Sending the much more potent life force of itself, at least compared to an human, directly to the affected body part, in this chase the brain, or the whole head really, the mighty fox was able to keep his host from dying. A nice side effect was that those energies repaired the ever occurring brain damage due to oxygen deficiency. Now play that game long enough and the body learns to live with lower levels that anybody with a passing knowledge with anatomy considers remotely possible. Sure, the affected person seems much dumber that the average person, unless he is in a situation where blood as well as chakra circulate much faster. Like, let's say, a fight.

Now if someone opens that floodgate that prevented all types of energy in any form to flow freely that would result in a higher level of activity as before the suppressant effect came into place. Now if this affects the head and therefore the brain and said person was fully average before, with, as defined, an IQ of 100 and after the limitation barely scrapping the 70's when he or she should be for all intents and purpose brain dead – well I think you can get the idea. While by no means a genius with an IQ of wide over 200 one would no longer be considered an idiot any more. And if certain person was not so average before...

Then you have to consider that this also effects all senses as well, mainly taste, smell, sight and hearing, but also touch due to the fact that the information streamed from the nerves was limited as well. Now such highlighted senses should be enough to send most people into blissful unconscious. If not the suddenly highlighted need for nutritions, oxygen and life energy should be enough to shut down the metabolism temporary.

But in the end that wasn't what knocked Naruto out. The small fact that he possesses a regeneration proved his downfall – or salvation the other, slower options considered. His consciousness decided to shut down because of to much input from the pain receivers. One has to consider that this regeneration bloodline could fix almost everything, even the damage to the genetic structure usually found after cell division, and has somewhat a life on his own. As long as enough chakra was available it fixes the body to it's peak performance, the more potent chakra of a tailed beast that was nearly limitless at disposal only helped. How would it otherwise be possible for Naruto to have his extreme stamina and not to look like he was starved? Sure direct attacks on the boy were very uncommon even before he graduated, usually limited to drunk people on few occasions – Kyuubi festival, hero memorial day and on one or two occasion the death of a person from a big and connected family or clan – but most people tried to get their own little revenge on the fox somehow, even if only indirect by harming the host in little ways. Being served smaller portions in restaurants, getting overcharged and receiving poor quality goods happened often, some shops even outright refused to serve him. While most people stared at him with cold indifference those happenings were eating away his founds, what led to less than advised food consumption for a ninja in training – besides ramen that is, after he found Ichiraku's.

At the moment the genetic mutation seemed to have decided to make some long overdue changes that before lacked the necessary supplies of chakra. Like, say expanding many pathways commonly found in the body, like blood vessels and chakra pathways. Many other changes were made as well – like old overdue corrections in the genetic information contained in every cell in his head. This small and big changes led to a near total renewal of his complete head. The strain on his chakra system for a moment was so great, that all his clones were dispelled.

* * *

Naruto slowly woke up. 'Weird' he thought 'I can smell every single tree surrounding the clearing, even the grass. Come to think of it, I also hear a lot more, small animals, seems to be insects mostly, and the wind in the trees.' Not making any assumptions yet he slowly opened his eyes. 'Damned light, far too bright for my liking.' he concluded squinting his eyes shut. He slowly, blinking opened his eyes again. 'Was that bloody light up in the sky always so extremely bright?' he thought to himself. Slowly sitting up he carefully observed his surroundings. 'It's as if the whole world suddenly is sharper – or as if a veil was suddenly lifted from my senses.' he mused. 'Well slept enough work to do' he thought, creating a quartet of Shadow Clones who without prompting went to additional digging. The Genin blinked 'Didn't I usually yell out orders for them what to due, despite the fact that they know everything I know the moment of creation? Well thinking it over my thoughts seldom were as focused and clear as today and I did change my opinion kinda fast and unpredictable.' Naruto then sat down in lotus position trying to achieve the peace in mind he had the last time he entered the mindscape. It proved difficult with his new thought pattern and send him thinking again: 'It seems as if I think a lot more now than before – must have something to do with that seal we removed earlier. Come to think of it, the sound of digging clones is a lot more distracting now, never noticed that before.'

* * *

Haku and Zabuza both re-entered the main chamber both around the same time. "That was certainly interesting." Zabuza said "I wonder what would happen if we brought some memories out here..." He then took a good look around and blinked. He then shot his companion a glance and noticed that he had a shocked look on his face too. "This is certainly interesting" the Daemon of the Mist murmured. Indeed the central chamber had changed noticeable. All those cable on the ground had somehow sorted itself to more manageable, thicker lines. The pipes at the ceiling showed an similar effect. And the crystal in the middle had changed from some broken out piece stone to a faceted cut gemstone. The light that previously only was visible on occasion now shone constantly.

"That stone seems to be something important, might as well take a look at it." Zabuza suggested. "It reminds me of something in my room." Haku replied "But that did represent my bloodline. Well lets find out." The older shinobi blinked in surprise, but then shrugged it off and made his way to the centre of the room. Curious, but still wary both slowly brought their hands up to touch the stone, as it did not seem dangerous and they had yet to find something really dangerous in here – well beside a certain irate fox and some foreign seal. They finally came into contact with the surface of the crystal and the world shifted.

Black.

Eternal darkness that stretched into every direction, nothing stood out that pulled ones sight onto it. But he could feel something solid, with an irregular surface in his back. Soft wind caressed the skin of his face and hands. He could feel it in his hair as well. He could smell grass, wet earth and rotting wood. There was also the faint smell of humid air and a slight smell of salt. Distant he could hear waves break against the shore. Closer his ears recognised rustling leaves, singing birds and many other varieties of sound emanating form small animals. Also there was this constant noise of metal hitting earth and something falling to the ground. That distinctive sound was far nearer than most others. It also seemed to be multiple people working on this what so ever. More confused than everything else Haku tried to slowly draw himself away from those sensory inputs. And to his surprise he succeeded on first try.

Looking around he saw Zabuza equally confused as he was. "Feeling, hearing, smelling, but only eternal darkness?" the ice wielder asked warily. "Some here" Zabuza answered court "Still trying to make sense of it." Carefully observing his surroundings the fake hunter-nin suddenly noticed a change and looked down onto his own hand. Sure there was a crystal of the same making than the big one in the middle of his room. It was part of a ring he was wearing, but he did not notice any weight form it. The stone itself was in the same shape than the symbol on the door behind which his memories were represented. The missing-nin's ring was the same, with his own symbol. Curios he touched the stone. The same sensation he felt touching the bigger gemstone occurred. Nothing had changed, the sounds and smells still the same as before. Focusing on retreating he managed it again.

"Whatever this is, it seems to be important otherwise we would not have those rings on our finger. They work just the same, by the way." he informed Zabuza of his discovery. "Important or not, I still haven't figured it out." he simple answered. Sitting down onto one of the cables that seemed dry they one again fell into silence, reconsidering those past few hours.

Suddenly Haku's head shot up. Zabuza spared him a glance. "I think I will try something." Haku said, looking at him and shrugging.

* * *

Naruto slowly became a bit peeved. How hard could it possible be to enter his very own mind? After all he did it not too long ago – once called there by the fox or his intense anger, he did not know, once what appeared to be a working of his assumed bloodline and then a third time by meditating. "Can't you work a bit more quiet, one can't even think in peace, nevermind clear his mind with all the noise you are making." he sully snapped at his clones, never opening his eyes. An answer was shot back: "Well, I think I heard someone call us the loudest ninja in the Hidden Leaf, so it's all your fault." The original snorted. 'I think he does has a point.' he then mulled. 'Stop, clearing the mind, thinking gets us nowhere.'

A few minutes later the young daemon container is about to scream out loud. Well, even if his intelligence went up, he still had some trouble with sitting still and doing nothing. Suddenly a voice asked him unsure: "Naruto, can you open your eyes?" Caught completely off-guard the blonds eyes snapped open and his head darted in every direction, but still seeing nobody but his clones. "Weird, I thought I heard someone speaking to me." he said aloud. His clones looked at him oddly. "If you go round the bend don't blame us and let as stay ignorant and sane." a cocky clone demanded. "Have I said something about stopping to work. Hush." retorted an irate original. "Well seems as if I found a way to talk to you from your mind." the odd voice added the familiar voice. "Haku?" Naruto demanded for clarification. The clones shot him another odd look, while one went as far as pulling out a kunai while mustering his creator calculating. "Yeah it's me" the ice wielder laughed at Naruto's situation. "But try thinking your replies back, I don't want to imagine what the citizens of your village would do if you started talking to yourself given your prisoner." 'Can try' he thought back to the odd pressure in the back of his mind that seemed to pulse every time he could hear Haku talk. "Much better, no suspicious clones debating over your non-existent sanity this way." came the answer. 'Any change in there, I seem to be unable to replicate my last entry into the mindscape?' "There seemed to be a lot of change, but then again I can't really tell, since we don't have any pictures of what this place looked like before we got here." 'Well, I can live with that, found any way to bring me in?' "No nothing, but what about focusing onto my presence here." 'Gotta try that, you mind being silent for a minute?'

* * *

Not nearly a minute later Haku suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and even if Naruto has closed his eyes again he could tell clearly that this sensation had nothing to do with the real world. Focusing onto the touch he found himself face to face with a grinning blonde. "Good, that's a few problems solved." Haku said "Getting you in here, communication while you are out there as well as observing the outside world." You could hear that he was proud of himself for his discovery. "So where are we here?" Naruto asked the pair. "'S far as I can tell we are in you mind here. Sensory input on this little stone here, pipes represent chakra pathways, cables are most likely nerves, the doors seem to hold memories, couldn't check thou, since we can only enter two and those hold our memories. That's actually something that I wanted to ask you, remember anything that you would find to be a distinctive memory of ours?" Zabuza answered. "I had a ice crystal in my room as well, that seemed to leak what looked very much like your chakra, most likely my bloodline. But then again, my body was destroyed, it's unlikely that you would be able to use it." Haku added. Naruto furrowed his brow and seemed to think about something, then claimed: "No, no memory springs to my mind that could be one of yours." Zabuza grinned: "Well then we will have to test something, won't we." And off he was.

Shortly after the famous missing-nin came back with a kodachi, but the blade seemed not to be made out of steel but of condensed mist. "That's my memory of learning the Hidden Mist Technique. Take it, look at it, and go out there and try it." Naruto took the sword, suddenly possessing a memory of him – no Zabuza he corrected himself – learning the Hidden Mist Technique. The blond grinned and faded from view, the blade falling to the ground.

* * *

Immediately both former Mist inhabitants touched the stones on their rings and started to observe. Naruto slowly and carefully formed hand seals. Then he gathered chakra and silently named the technique: "Hidden Mist Technique". Suddenly deep mist started in the area, his shadow clones stopped working and looked up startled. But then instead of staying the mist receded fast. Naruto frowned and then thought towards his spectators: 'I think I know why while working the technique only worked like on one of Zabuza's early tries. We differ in terms of chakra control and reserves too much, it's as if I woke up one day in a different body and expected that everything works perfectly.' He could hear Zabuza's agreement: "Don't forget elemental affinities brat. While it is obvious that you have some skill with water, I take it it isn't your primary. Otherwise it would be disturbingly weak." 'Elemental affinities?' Naruto thought questioningly back 'What's that?' "You don't know about affinities?" Zabuza was surprised "They test the students back in mist before they even learn their first technique. I would have expected that at least your teacher thought you something about those, seeing as he is one of three ninja loyal to the Leaf who mastered manipulation all five elements. Affinities indicate how easy it is for someone to manipulate a certain chakra element. I for my part have a main water affinity, like most shinobi in Hidden Mist. Haku here is born with a bloodline that allows him to manipulate the subelement ice, though he never learned a main element. Seeing as you could use the technique you have at least a weak affinity for water, unlike some who will never be able to use certain elements. Now you seem to be able to learn at least some of my techniques, but it seems to be better to learn them from scratch, that relearning them for a new body, that way I can also point out finer points, since I seem to have lost the memory that I have passed over to you." Naruto then returned to his mind a test successful, but not as all of them hoped.

Handing the sword back to Zabuza Naruto commented on his try: "It was not all for nothing, I remember how it should work, even if I have seemed to have forgotten the exact execution again after handling the sword back. I also do remember the hand signs I was forming, as I have seen myself forming them, even if I have no memory from where I knew them before. OK, let's start training. Do you think I can use Shadow Clones? After removing that seal I did notice to have memories that I should not possible have, because that are experiences of my clones, not me." "I think Shadow Clones would help you greatly with training, but try only a few at first and then up the number, we have no idea if there are side effects, as far as I know it is listed as a kinjutsu for some reason after all." Zabuza explained and the blonde nodded in agreement. "However there are a few things you should do before that, I think." the Daemon of the Mist then added. "For one I don't want my corpse to lie around, and Haku's even less. Cut my head of, that you receive credit for the kill and the bounty, but burn the rest of our bodies. Too much information lies within those lumps of flesh and there are a few more ruthless individuals who are known to search actively for bodies and also alive samples of bloodlines for experimentations. Orochimaru of the Sannin comes to mind at the forefront. After all he was banished from the Leaf village for experimenting on their own bloodlines and using the villages orphans to do so. Heard over a three thousand were found dead in his hidden laboratories and only a handful alive. Secondly go and clean out our hideout. There are many useful things there, equipment, rations, money, technique scrolls and much more. Helps you out if you have to explain where you learned all the stuff were gonna teach you. Also Haku has a whole collection of outfits form various hunter-nin and ANBU. Collected those from the people after us, might come in handy one day if you plan on infiltrating Hidden Mist. Maybe even kill Yagura..." Saying the last sentence he had a dreamy look on his face. "Wasn't that why you were declared missing-nin in first place?" Naruto interjected. Grumbling Zabuza agreed "Nearly had him, the few guards were easily taken care of and he was sleeping. Even I ain't crazy enough to take him head on. If it wasn't for the Sanbi sealed within him and his weird Uchiha bodyguard I would have had him." Naruto was suddenly interested: "Didn't you say he hated bloodlines and wanted to kill them? Why then have a bodyguard with a bloodline limit, and of a clan non the less that isn't even loyal to Mist village?" "How would I know. But then again that man did hide behind a mask and only one eye was visible, and that while red had different markings, not the Sharingan tomoe. Well, anyway as a third thing you should do, I think it would be good to clear out Gato's headquarters. Give the citizens control of the country back, kill anybody that might take over and led the organisation in the future and you might even find a thing or two that interests you." "While I don't like the idea of killing I can see the logic. Kill 'em now before they come back with a vengeance, ne? Might as well get used to killing, I am a shinobi after all. Now then, any hints on how to transport someone's head, how to carry all the loot and what about the basics of that fire technique of yours, might be handy to dispose off bodies." "Ah, yeah, that technique is actually one of the hunter-nin's favourite, exactly for that purpose. Now to transport the head, we should have a few storage scrolls back in our hideout for exactly that purpose. You can use other non specified scrolls to transport all the other stuff. Now for the technique, it doesn't actually have a name, but try it. If it's not working you don't have any affinity for fire then it won't work. This is how it's done..."

* * *

Coming out of his meditation, and having got the fire technique down, at least in his mindscape, Naruto turned to his clones and saw that they had finished digging the graves. "Good work" he complimented them. "Now fill those up again and erect two markers." Four clones stared at him with their jaw's hanging. "You know, " one of them said dead serious "I'm gonna kill you now, just to ensure that that kind of insanity doesn't spread around." Moving for his kunai pouch the was dispelled before he could do any damage. "Any objections?" the original asked. Two shook their heads slowly, while the third put his shovel down and walked away: "I've got enough of this boss, I quit." As he turned around a kunai hit him in the back of his head while Naruto muttered "Mutiny." Creating four new Shadow Clones he went to retrieve his kunai. Afterwards he went to work on the two bodies. Cutting Zabuza's head off wasn't that hard, once he managed to lift the Decapitating Carving Knife high enough. Seeing it was now his he decided do name the sword after this occasion Head Cutter. Afterwards he went to work on incinerating the body's. While he was able to do the technique he was far from mastering it and therefore it took him a good many tries to fully erase every clue of their presence. Pouring the ashes into the already half-filled graves he knelt down speaking a short prayer as to honour the end of their bodily existence.

Naruto then left his clones behind and followed the silent directions of the mist duo towards their hideout, all while carrying a bloody head. There he quickly searched for a scroll to put the head into and then piled everything he could find together. "Remember storage scrolls that are of good quality can hold nearly limitless mass, you just have to put enough chakra into the seal to encompass all that is lying on it. Also sealing a storage scroll into another is asking for trouble. If you have bad quality seals however if you put too much chakra into them they will overload and then decompose – you will lose everything stored into them. Very high quality storage scrolls can be recognised by special additions, like those that keep something put into it from rotting, like a head or food, blood based security features or the option of pulling out items one by one. I may not know how to create seals, but I can recognise a fair few by look alone and can create explosive tags, good quality storage scrolls and those used for body parts from memory, I'll teach you to make those some when, you can never have enough of those three types of seals." the Daemon of the Mist lectured.

'Yeah, yeah, I have heard that rant already' Naruto reminded him while looking over what he found. A fair few scrolls on water element ninjutsu, one with a single ice technique – the demonic ice mirrors Haku used against Sasuke, a few scrolls wherein Haku detailed his training in ice techniques, their creation and usage, a scroll on chakra elements in general and one on one handed hand signs, two scrolls on kenjutsu, the sword arts, one for a big unwieldy sword as Zabuza's and one for smaller ninjato, that the hunter-squad's from Hidden Mist seemed to favour, and a few miscellaneous scrolls. Besides the usual equipments there were seven full hunter-nin uniforms – five from Mist and one each from Hidden Rain and Hidden Grass – and two ANBU uniforms from Mist. While the sizes were carefully chosen to fit Haku, Naruto decided that it would do for him as well – he was not that much smaller as Haku after all. That of course was his ego speaking, but he somehow managed to wear those uniforms without standing out as too big.

Haven sorted through the stuff, and sealed everything into four scrolls – the one holding Zabuza's head included – Naruto put the hut after some prompting form Haku on fire. Slowly turning away he jumped into the trees making his way to where according to the two Mist shinobi Gato's manor was located, even if it was more of a bastion manned by hundreds of mercenaries, thugs, bandits and samurai as well as shinobi drop-outs. Non of them fully trained of course, but more challenging opponents than your run of the mill bandit.

Slowly approaching the widespread property located at the shore Naruto carefully looked out for guards. Deciding, that there where non beyond the easily three meter high fence, or he would be dead anyway the blonde came to rest on a tree branch where he could not only overlook most of the property, but also jump down into the gardens if needed. While he was observing the guard schedule as well as the placement of several hidden posts, Naruto saw a seemingly familiar boat approaching. He blinked. Sure the boat would seem familiar, after all it was the same that Gato used to get to the bridge today. While it docked on a jetty behind the house it was carefully observed. The thugs that left all seemed to fallow the command of one man. Apparently one of them did manage to take the organisation over. And by the bloodstains visible on his clothing it did not happen by previous nomination or even peaceful.

His arrival and power grab did not seem to be taken well by about half of the remaining thugs on the estate. Soon a fight started between the new leaders followers and those who were not agreeable with the situation. And while some people might think this was the perfect opportunity to strike as about one hundred man fought against twice their number, Naruto decided it was not. While he and a large number of shadow clones might be able to take out a large number in the initial strike the survivors would band together against him and even with ninja training two hundred against one were never good odds. As it was he decided that is would be best to wait for them to weaken themselves and then wait until they let their guard down. Not coming back to Tazuna's seemed not that much of a problem to him, since the only ones really caring would be the bridge builder's family. Then again the old man himself might not even notice, drunk as he most likely was. His team, well Sasuke could care less and there is no way he would comment as long as there was no benefit for him, Kakashi would most likely not even notice, absorbed as he was into his smut and Sakura, well she would likely remake on it, try to hit him on the head and then get him into trouble with Kakashi. Not that the Cyclops would care. 'What did I see in the pink haired banshee again?' Naruto thought to himself, before shaking his head and return his focus to the brawl beneath him.

The new leaders decision to kill those who opposed him, even if they did give up when they realised that their faction was going to loose did please him. After all that was one kill less he had to make. 'But then again if I kill close to two hundred people, what will those two dozen make much of a difference?'

Naruto also took great care to see where the injured men were brought to, after all it was very likely that there would be some people around that would stay awake all night long. Another point of interest was the location of the leader and what seemed to be his lieutenants, because from what he could observe during the fight that group of five all seemed to have at least basic ninja training: shuriken, kunai and the replacement technique. As the time went on those five started to consume large quantities of sake in what was likely Gato's office and in some kind of mess hall and the gardens the others started to drink. Also to Naruto's joy he noticed that his enemies had started to neglect guard duty. Not to long after that a pair of disguised clones took over one of the guard routes.

It did not take long until they were approached by a random thug. "Come on" he shouted "The boss wants to deliver a speech to all of us." Without answering the clones followed to the front of the house where a large entrance hall was located. Up the stairs stood the new leader, now with stain free cloth, his lieutenants were located halfway up the stairs.

"Welcome my friends" the boss stated "As you all know I am the new owner of Gato Cooperation. As such our businesses will continue as usual. Well not all as usual, but adjustments must be made. For now, with those ninja in the country as well as most of the citizens in arms we will have to lay low for a few days or even weeks. Afterwards it will be easy to take over the bride and collect a toll from all those who want to use it. All in all, not much will change and of course all of you will get your rightful share." He finished smiling while the audience broke out in cheers. Nobody noticed a single man slip out and burst into smoke. The leader then droned on and on, from time to time interrupted by loud cheers. When the speech was finished and all left for their respective drinks the second clone left their company and disappeared unseen.

'This information is certainly troubling. Was Gato as bad as he was? Then again, how did you end up in his service in first place?' Naruto thought to his incorporeal companions. "Well, he was really good at keeping up that mask as a honest businessman of his. Even I was fooled, thought it was some easy bandit extermination when I took him up on the offer. After all the reward was high – a permanent sanctum where we could hide from hunter-nin. Now when the contract was signed I did not know all details, but well once signed I could hardly back out. You have to know missing-nin do have to keep a certain reputation or no one will hire you ever again. It's the bane of our existence that we have to take jobs like this, but if we don't we would not be able to survive." Zabuza answered sadly. "This is also the reason why I keep this mask on my emotions, even towards Haku, it made dealing with it easier."

About an hour later Naruto decided to make his move. Creating three dozen clones he send them out to stealthy take out the guards on the property. Even that was not as easy as it may sound, since most who took their duty serious had some kind of training. Still, Naruto possessed the advantage of numbers, since there were almost three clones per guard. While most noticed the blond just seconds before he entered striking range – what was a feat with orange jumpsuit and blonde hair – they were killed fast by a cut throat by courtesy of the clone approaching behind. Thou the goal was achieved: all guards were gone and nobody in the house had noticed.

The memories of the few clones that were dispersed on the other hand caused Naruto to shrug off his jacket and created an army of clones wearing his dark blue t-shirt. A couple of them transformed into the man they had just killed and entered the house. Grabbing some sake here and there and grumbling about being stuck on guard duty was their general behaviour. But if the clones met some thug somewhere alone they quickly took care of him and hid his body.

The clones did display some displeasure at killing, thou nobody complained out loud or even lost the content of his stomach. That led to an interesting question with some clones. Did they even have stomachs? Were they less able to feel guilt than the original? Since when where they even able to formulate such philosophical questions?

Meanwhile only about one hundred and fifty able fighters remained in the manor. Approximately another 25 were injured in what he dubbed the infirmary. Naruto's clones on the other hand numbered twelve in the house and a good four hundred outside. The mess hall, where about a hundred drunk mercenaries were located was already discretely rigged with explosive tags. So was to door and wall to the infirmary and the door to the boss office. After concentrating on his chakra reserves and finding them about two thirds full the blonde decided to go for overkill and created another four hundred shadow clones. He himself has never left his sentry and since he had no other ninjutsu to speak of he decided on safety in numbers.

Taking one deep breath he decided to start. Forming a ram seal and sending a chakra pulse to ignite the explosive tags while the clones started their assault. The tags were mostly placed beneath the tables and benches in large numbers due to the fact that they were easy to place there and equally unlikely to be noticed. Others were placed more daring, replacing the labels of more than one sake bottle, on the floor in plain sight, on pants and one clone even managed to place a tag on the inside of the collar of a very drunk samurai wannabe while he insisted on hugging him. So it was no surprise that the initial explosions mainly maimed the legs of the thugs unlucky enough to sit near, if they were not outright blown off. Exploding bottles sent heated liquid and razor-sharp glass fragments through the room, cutting and burning people left and right. One was even unlucky enough to hold a sake bottle with special label in his hand, taking a sip when the tag went off. Let's just say, there wasn't much of his head left. Like the one who had a tag inside of his collar. Nothing to identify him from left.

Not twenty seconds later clones started to pour into the room where they found only about twenty enemies left, and those were in no shape to fight. Now forced to hold their bile down they went to deliver mercy kills.

The infirmary was located in a side building, most likely to prevent sicknesses from spreading and to ensure the healthy ones did not have to deal with the screams and moaning of injured. That provided quiet a bad ending for those who were located there. Since all four walls were heavily coated by explosive tags the roof came down, crushing everyone who might have survived the explosions and flying debris. Half a dozen clones decided to stand sentry to ensure nobody come crawling out of the destroyed building.

Those who were in their rooms, at random places in the house and in the boss's office where best off. While the office was targeted by explosions the debris from the door and adjusting frame did not reach the five people drinking in there. Hearing the explosions they instantly went on guard, but with only twenty of them left and nearly seven hundred shadow clones after their lives the odds were bad. Still most of them did put up quiet a fight, especially the leader and his bodyguards. While all of them presented abilities of a skilled academy graduate non of them was anything special. Even if they worked together covering each others back they soon fell to a constant assault of clones lunging at them with kunai ready to strike and those staying back and throwing shuriken. As soon as one fell, the other four soon followed.

When it all was over the clones started to search the place. They sorted through all kinds of assorted items. Deeds of ownership, mortgages and associated stuff was all put together to one stack, as were most of the bank accounts. Cash and any type of weapon and other useful things landed on a second stack, while miscellaneous items were placed on a third. Naruto planed to give the first stack to the villagers, keep the second for himself and sell the third. And so his clones put two of the stacks into storage scrolls.

Searching the basement some of the clones found prisoners. Exclusively young good-looking women. Freeing them and leading them out of the building they across the massacre that happened in the mess hall. While some took the sight really bad a few, who had apparently been hold in the cells for a longer time, actually started to cheer.

Meanwhile outside of the property the original Naruto was losing his stomach's content. The memories of the clones of the bloody mess they created were bad enough, but the thought that he had just killed over two hundred people in less than five minutes. Well he could have argued that it was his clones and not him, if it was not for this one thug who somehow managed to get to the fence and then through it. A well placed kunai in his throat stopped him dead in his tracks. In the back of his mind Haku commented: "I seldom could bring myself to kill, but this is the way of the shinobi – we kill for money. You should be thankful for your villages reputation, therefore most missions you get assigned you can argue: I kill people so that others can live in peace. You saw the women in the basement, you know what those thugs did to them. You heard the plans of the leader of those bastards. You know how much more people would have died, how much more people would have suffered if you hadn't done this." 'Yeah, but that was no kill in a fight, most of this was a massacre – even if I only was a single man, they never stood a change, most never even got a change to fight back.' he thought back. Zabuza answered: "That would have only led to you getting injured and some of those thugs escaping. They would have sought out other bandits and slowly created a image of the evil Leaf-shinobi that kills everyone he finds. Until one day they would come back in masses and try to gain their rightful retribution for their comrades. That is another important lesson for a young shinobi: we kill from the shadows, we cheat, we lie and all simply to get out of the mess called world with our lives." Naruto drew in air slow and deliberate and exhaled it again, equally slowly. By now he had stopped to vomit and hoped that the breathing exercise helps. Finally he looked up, steeled determination burning in his eyes: "If this is the way we walk so be it, may the gods judge our souls not by how many we killed, but by how many we saved." 'Doesn't mean I have to like it.' he added in thought. His audience of two smiled. "You'll do great brat" Zabuza grumbled good natured.

* * *

It took almost two weeks even with a renewed influx of workers and the help of the shinobi, well one shinobi to be honest. After all Kakashi had to read his smut, Sasuke was a ninja after all and too good to do "commoners work" and what was beneath Sasuke's standards didn't even find consideration in Sakura's eyes. Naruto on the other hand saw this as a opportunity to build up muscles. After all a sword like Zabuza's Head Cutter did weight quiet a lot. Also while working he constantly talked to his two friends learning a lot about each others lives and also a good deal about the world, that he either before never deemed important or was never taught.

In the meantime he had clones worth half his chakra reserves working in a secluded part of the woods. Every morning he would get a task from Zabuza and Haku and then try to get it down until dinner. The first day he spend mastering the water element. Both ninja former from Mist were astonished at his fast progress. The rest of the week was spent trying mastering his fire technique, the two academy techniques he was able to do and 'Hidden Mist Technique', 'Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death' and 'Water Clone Technique'. Mastering would mean to be able to use the techniques without hand seals, but so far he was only able to do so with the replacement technique. While he could do the others with one handed seals and less than original, which also meant that it was no longer copyable by the Sharingan, he had them by no way mastered. The second week was spent leaning to manipulate wind, but due to lack of techniques therefore Naruto then tried to master ice manipulation. He did make progress and the speed would have astonished everyone else, but Naruto was a bit peeved that it took him that much longer that manipulating the main elements.

While they did not seem to notice he was also avoiding his teammates as much as possible. Another thing that eluded them was that the citizens of Wave treated Naruto as if he was royalty while mostly ignoring the other three. It seemed that the story of him killing Gato and passing his holdings onto the Country and it's inhabitants has made a quick round after the women he freed arrived at the village. Kakashi seemed more interested in his book than everything else, noting nothing that wasn't a threat to his person. He spend his days sitting on a pillar of the bridge and the evenings sitting on the roof of Tazuna's house. Sakura spend nearly all her time trying to impress the Uchiha or shopping. Sasuke on the other hand tried to find a place away from people and brood in peace, but that was not that easy with a pink haired banshee scouting the place regularly for him. The only good thing about the place in his mind was the lack of fangirls beside the one on his team.

* * *

When the four shinobi prepared themselves to leave they were waved goodbye by what seemed to be the island country's whole population. Non of them had changed a bit, besides Naruto, who now wore a forest green bandanna to hide his blonde hair and had abandoned wearing his orange jacket leaving him with a dark blue t-shirt. Nobody could claim that he did not learn his lesson about stealth, because if half-trained dropouts can sense you coming a skilled opponent will kill you. Naruto gave one last hug to Inari before he got one last hug from Tsunami and two women he vaguely remembered freeing from Gato's manor. He smiled and waved as he and his team left Wave Country.

* * *

AN: There is also no love lost between me and the banshee and the emo. If I like or dislike Kakashi depends on the characterisation, but I want to try something that I have not seen before (if I manage is another question entirely). I want to portrait him as truly lazy and no care in the world. The only thing that could shake him would be the death of someone close to him, but of that kind no one is left and his not interested attitude doesn't help him to gain any new close friends.

Well anyway first full chapter is done, hope you like it.

About shadow clones and chakra levels: who read carefully will notice that Naruto's limit at the moment is at 1200 clones, then he will collapse of exhaustion. Considering that Kakashi formed 30-40 shadow clones after he was exhausted from fighting Zabuza and even using the Chidori. All while having the Sharingan active... well he probably can create up to 200-250 or so if he is fresh and stay in a fight. Kakashi not striking me as someone with large reserves, after all he can only pull of four Chidoris a day, while Sasuke a Genin can form two (Chunin Exam arc, training before the finals). Well, I'd guess someone like Sarutobi can form up to 800-900 in one go. Well the manga is a bit confusion at times, sometimes it is portrayed as if creating 10 shadow clones is a lot, other times a exhausted Kakashi forms 40... Another thing is this splitting the chakra... Well enough ranting I'll see how people react.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sarutobi Hiruzen, third Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves looked sceptical onto the team before him.

Haruno Sakura, daughter to a pair of merchants, no known background of ninja within her family. Possesses according to the reports from the academy a brilliant mind and excellent chakra control already well on her path to Chunin. Well the reports of most teachers drew that picture, but in the last few months he gave those of Iruka more weight than the others. And Iruka added that she seemed to be a fangirl of the worst sort who seemed to forget most things in favour of fawning over the last Uchiha as soon as he enters the room. According to the preliminary mission report she 'hung back and protected the client.' Meant most likely the most action she saw was drawing a kunai.

Uchiha Sasuke, according to the civilian part of the village the last Uchiha. Of course there were a few other Uchiha's but all of them were either crippled, chose a civilian profession or were born without the potential to awaken the Sharingan, their prized bloodline limit and therefore cast out of the clan before the massacre. And then there was his brother Itachi, but that was another story altogether. Academy reports sang praise about a genius among geniuses and a born shinobi legend, but then again Iruka's report said different things. While certainly skilled he was not on a level with people like Itachi or Kakashi, at least not yet. Also most teachers seemed to forget that their additional lessons were what gave him the obvious edge against his classmates. And his emotional stability was pulled into question. If the council did not enjoy blocking his decision mental evaluation would already be mandatory for his subordinates. According to the oral mission report by the commander of said mission he 'fought well against superior opponents.' Read as too stubborn to retreat when clearly outclassed.

Uzumaki Naruto, jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, village pariah. While almost all shinobi as well as most parts of the civilian population viewed him neutral, it was exactly that, neutral, waiting, passive. The small parts that did act out against him therefore not only had it easier to get away with it but also were more prominent in ones mind. He had the suspicion that the abnormal high concentration of those who clearly disliked him on the civilian part of the council was somewho manipulated, but he had nothing to prove it. While not actively sabotaged at the academy, well beside Mizuki, many of his teachers simply ignored him, even if he did ask a question. According to the reports he was abysmal at everything shinobi and should look for a different employment. Naturally nobody ever thought about teaching him chakra control to be able to master the clone technique, simply because in their mind there is no way that a academy student could have that much chakra. On the other hand Iruka reported above average skills at stealth and trap making, no surprise there, as well as excellent stamina. He even went as far as proclaiming him an future ninjutsu specialist due to his chakra capacity. His part in the mission seemed to have been to 'supply excellent support towards the main fighters.' He read this considering the rest of the report as 'saved everyone's ass when we got ourself into a tough spot.'

When Kakashi ended his report an turned to leave two of his students followed on the other hand hung back. "Can we talk?" he asked unsure and so unlike his usual self.

Sarutobi smiled, having always had a soft spot for the young boy. "Sure" he answered.

"Alone? With those sound suppression seals and no ANBU?" the blond added glancing into one of the corner of the room.

Now the Hokage was intrigued. Few knew that there was an ANBU permanently situated in the room, much less could locate them. Also was were this requests so unlike Naruto's normal hyperactive self. Making a small hand sign an Cat-masked purple-haired ANBU stepped out of the corner Naruto had glanced into few moments earlier.

"Neko-chan" the boy murmured and then added louder "I trust her, she can hear this if you want."

The kunoichi seemed surprised that she was recognised, after all it had been a few years since she last had to guard him. She tilted her head to the side as if to ask a question.

Naruto read her body language right and supplied: "You were the only one who ever read children's stories to me, how could I forget that."

The ANBU smiled underneath her mask and stood behind the Hokage. Said men meanwhile had activated the seals that made the room impenetrable and mock pouted: "What about me, I told you stories as well."

Naruto snorted: "Yeah, but recollections of your missions and the rise of various shinobi legends hardly qualify as children's stories."

While he was quiet astonished at the blonds choice of words the old ruler had to agree with the statement. "Now onto business, I don't think you wanted all the security to talk about childhood memories."

Naruto pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it over asking: "Do you by any chance recognise this seal? Of course it is not the full seal, but I reconstructed it as well as possible"

Taking a good look at the design the old man answered: "I do not know this specific seal but I recognise parts of it. Those two you got the most detailed are for one a suppression seal and the other is a seal that eliminates every trace of its existence if the host's chakra circulation stops for longer than thirty seconds. So this was obvious meant to use on something living, most likely a human. Now this one specific swirl here I am also familiar with. The first version of it was an array that the Yondaime created to block electric lines, that included many telephone lines. While first thought to destroy the enemy's information lines they later used it against us as well. That's why we use falcons to transport messages now. But this is the modified, second version of that array, designed to prevent every form of energy from passing through – it was first used in the seal that we use at the moment to prevent spies from listening in. I think we both can deduct the main purpose of this seal, right?"

He handed the paper over to Neko who immediately gasped. "I have seen this seal before, one of the ANBU seal masters we took over from ROOT designed it. It was meant as a untraceable way to kill. They said they would make a test run, but all I heard was that it had failed, nothing was mentioned about it since then." she pressed out.

Suddenly Sarutobi was alert and asked: "Where did you find this?"

Naruto only brought his hand up to his neck and kept it there. The two adults sucked in their breath sharply. "Going over my memories I assume it was place when I was three, you remember that drunk veteran that put me into hospital for full ten days? I think the seal was placed some when during that time." the blond explained.

"The time frame is right. I can assume you found a way to remove it?" Neko asked.

Naruto nodded and then said: "Yeah, and you know, the seal would have worked, if it weren't for a certain Bijuu too stubborn to die."

"Good thing for small favours. Any name for interrogation – after all there seemed to be a conspiracy against you?" Sarutobi then said.

"Names? No. A face that I suspect? Sure, but unfortunate that specific council member is dead by now." Naruto answered.

Sarutobi frowned and then said: "Well nothing that we could do about that. But this is troubling because nobody besides the Hokage should be able to authorise such research in first place and if the one who placed it was an civilian and no ANBU would mean there are elements within the force outside of my control. Most likely ROOT wasn't disbanded as ordered. I will have someone I can trust look into it, but even if there is some evidence, if it isn't enough it could start a civil war and we don't even know enemy numbers. Very troubling indeed. On a different note is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"Sure" the young boy answered cheerful while the Hokage rose an eyebrow. "Duckass wasn't the only one to awaken a bloodline on the bridge."

Sarutobi's jaw fell before he muttered ignoring the insult of his the blonds teammate: "But non of your parents had a bloodline."

Naruto caught onto it immediately: "So you do know who my parents were, but that is something for another time. Well as annoying as that fox can be he knows his stuff. According to him people who are exposed to what he labelled higher beings can develop bloodlines, or at least the more powerful ones, for example all dojutsu. While there is a chance that you get something meeting such a being it isn't guaranteed nor is there a assurance that is will be passed on to your children. Now the fox admits that he is responsible for my regeneration, what seems to be a bloodline. But there has to be something else, which most likely comes from the Shinigami." He stopped there looking at the two adults that looked at him with rapt attention.

"So what does this do?" Sarutobi asked, for once again sounding impatient, something that rarely happened the last few years.

Naruto grinned evilly and then declared in the most cheerful voice: "I got his ability to eat souls."

The other two occupants paled dramatically at that, thou you could not see it behind Neko's mask.

"Calm down" Naruto then proceeded in a normal voice "Ain't sure what the limits of this will be, but as far as I can tell it only permits me the 'pick up' souls from a recently dead body. And as far as we can tell there is no way for those souls to interact with the outside world."

Thinking the information over the Hokage then asked: "Who is we?" "Oh, just Zabuza, Haku and I" "Haku?" asked Neko. "The fake hunter-nin." Naruto answered.

After sitting in silence for nearly a minute Sarutobi sighs and then asks Naruto: "What do you want to do now? You know that bringing a new bloodline allows you to found a clan. "

Naruto then replies, clearly already put some thought into the answer: "I would prefer to keep it under warp. While the regeneration might come out someday the Shinigami's Touch is something that might lead to a mass panic. For now it's just having someone who knows about that doesn't residents in my mindscape and with whom I can talk this over. It surely doesn't hurt that said people is titled 'the Professor'."

"Any other surprises you want to drop on us?" the old man then asked warily.

"Beside the fact that I am now one of the Seven Swordsman, because the last one named me his successor before he died? That I have raided Zabuza's hideout as well as Gato's residence? That I killed a few thugs who thought that they could take over Gato Cooperation including the illegal deals? No, nothing. Ah, well, you could do me a favour if it isn't too much?"

"I'll consider it if you write your own mission report – eyes only, that means including your bloodline." "Consider it done, do we have something in the village to precisely test chakra affinities?"

Sarutobi leant back in his chair and seemed to think: "Usually we just give our shinobi chakra paper. Those indicate which element someone has the strongest affinity to, but I think that wasn't what you wanted to know."

Naruto nodded: "Yes, in Mist they have special chakra paper that indicates how strong your affinity for a specific element is, thou those aren't that accurate, and Sand is known that they have a very accurate method to test wind affinities, but lack the ability to determinate the others."

"Normally our shinobi don't start elemental training before they make chunin, but some clans members often start earlier, or never, like the Hyuuga. Am I right to assume you already started elemental manipulation?" the Hokage waited for confirmation and then continued: "In that case the paper would most likely indicate the element you started to train with."

"Elements" Naruto interrupted and seeing the blank expression on the Hokage's face elaborated: "Like in wind and water?"

Sarutobi let his surprise show: "You know that this is a requirement for jounin to be able to manipulate two elements? And how have you done that anyway, it takes most people in average two years to get it down?"

"Shadow Clones" was the short answer "Anyway why don't you use them for paperwork?"

"Can't use them, because if a document gets tested onto validity and it is signed by a clone – even if it is my chakra – it shows up as fake. Additional overuse of shadow clones has been known to cause brain damage. I don't know how you did that but please use less clones in the future, OK?"

"If you say so I will reduce their numbers. And I would use them for your job anyway, at least to read stuff over and sort it, if you can't use it to sign all the stuff. Now you were saying something about an alternative to chakra paper."

Sarutobi lit his pipe and mulled what he was planing over once again. "Yes actually there are two ways for a more precise tests. One uses the wood of the same tree we make chakra paper out of, but that one is ridiculous expensive. Now the other way only very few people know of. You are aware that the Yondaime way a genius with seals yes?" He briefly paused again. "But as you have seen those seal leave a lot of room for abuse. He himself was, while quiet trusting into his own soldiers and citizens, aware that parts of that specific seal array he used to create this method can be horrible twisted, like those specifice could be used to force someones chakra to take on a certain elemental nature, that if the coils aren't accustomed can damage those permanent. Therefore he declared this a secret and speaking about it can get you executed for treason, is that clear. Not even the council is informed about this method. You understand this. "

Naruto nodded and waited for the old Hokage to continue. "Now I could never interfere with your training directly, like your problem with the academy clones, because the council then accused me of favouritism, but since they don't know about this they can't interfere." He chuckled about about that like he just succeeded an evil plan. "He created a chamber deep below the tower, where many a secret and archives of classified material are located, and prepared it with seals that will accurately measure ones affinities with all elements. In fact beside himself and me only a few selected ANBU ever were tested with this, one of them even commented it's more accurate in measuring that Suna's method for wind, but for all elements. I think I can spare this much time, follow me, both of you."

Without waiting he stood up and disappeared through a small side door you would never notice if you don't know about it. They fallowed stair after stair deep below the surface until they reached simple hallways that reminded Naruto of his mindscape, without the pipes, and the water, and anyway in a far better condition than his mindscape. "Yugao, if you want to you can go first. I know I never offered you this opportunity before, but you always seemed more interested in your swords and all the other pointy stuff than elemental techniques." Sarutobi offered his ANBU guard.

"It would be an honour" she answered.

The group of three walked through endless hallways and two more sets of stairs down. There the Hokage stopped before a seal and smeared some blood onto it. What looked like solid stone only seconds before suddenly revealed a door. "I told you, a genius with seals as no other in this village." the old man told them.

Entering the chamber they saw a circular room with smooth stone walls. An the ground a large pentagram was located, clearly made out of many small seal arrays. A small recess, just enough for three people was located near the door. The Hokage quickly entered the niche.

"Well then, Naruto come over here, Yugao stand into the centre of the pentagram over there. Now start to channel chakra into your feet, like with the tree walking exercise." Sarutobi ordered.

First the connection lines of the five pointed shape started to glow and then after nearly a minute several symbols appeared around every point. "You can stop now." the Hokage then said "Let's see. Minato explained me that those here are base levels, affinities one is born with, these are levels acquired through training and those are foreign chakra. Those mostly indicate that someone is under influence of a long term genjutsu, since nobody down here is casting one, unless there is someone like you Naruto, as I expect the foxes chakra to show up here. He decided that 10 would make a good choice for the average shinobi's main affinity. According to this you have above average affinities for water and earth element, and also trained those quiet well, but it also indicates you could quiet easily learn wind techniques. There are some that would enhance your swordsmanship quiet considerable."

"I will consider it." the ANBU operative answered and then walked over to Naruto and Sarutobi.

The old man then said: "It's your turn now, Naruto."

The blonde then walked inside the star and started to channel chakra. He could actually feel the drain the circle placed onto him, not that it took to much out of him, but he could feel the constant flow the seal arrays demanded to work properly. To his surprise not only symbols around the five points lit up, but also around the centre of the connection line of water and wind.

Sarutobi commented: "Now what do we have here... Minato you really were a genius, but clearly too fast finishing your paperwork. One day I will find out how you did that. Nobody should have that much freetime tinkering with seals. Well the obvious first. Your foreign chakra obvious has affinities no human can ever hope to achieve. Fire at 93 and the other four elements around the 70's. No surprise there. For your base affinities you have 15 with wind, quiet hight especially considering that there is only one other active shinobi in the village with a main affinity for wind. Then there is a twelve for water, again above average, and lightning at nine, many would be happy to have such an affinity as their main. Earth and fire are at three, usable, but if you want to use them on any higher level it will take years of training. Now through training acquired elevations there is seven for water, unheard of for a Genin to be honest, and 3 for wind. Most Genin are promoted before they can train themselves over four in one element. And then there is the really surprise: No initial affinity for ice, but a three through training. Anything you want to tell me, since it obviously is no bloodline otherwise there would be a base affinity?"

"Well according to this elemental nature theory scroll from Hidden Mist that I acquired, subelements, while easier accessible by certain bloodline clans, can be trained. They developed the theory a long time ago, with the help of the bloodline clans Mist had before the war. There even were a few who tested it out, but they all took at least ten times as much effort as normal elements. Thirty years and more were not uncommon before they could use those techniques with the same ease as bloodline members. Now with the help of shadow clones it takes less time." Naruto answered with a wide grin.

Sarutobi was hooked: "Anything you can demonstrate?"

"How does the room react to the active use of techniques?"

"Should be fine, at least that's what Minato said, muttered even something about testing the requirements of a technique. If he really included something like that then I'm gonna start using clones for the paperwork. Those should help reading all things over so that those damned vultures can't pass something I don't want."

Naruto concentrated for a few seconds before he went through a short sequence of hand seals. "Ice release: Ice needle" he whispered and a thin needle started to form out of air moisture. Immediately symbols started to glow again, this time only at the connecting line of water and wind.

"That's all I can do by now." Naruto stated seemingly proud of his achievement.

"Two. If he wasn't already dead I would strangle that man. He had entirely too much time for his seals, while I am stuck doing paperwork." the Hokage muttered distracted.

* * *

As was standard after a A-Ranked mission, even if said ranking was upgraded during the course of the mission, team 7 had a week off. The Hokage was quiet pleased with the report Naruto handed in the very next morning. While he was saddened about the people Naruto had to kill he agreed that it was the right thing to do, even if it was not part of the mission specifications. During the week the original could be seen working with one of the ninjato found in Haku's collection while one hundred clones were hidden in the forests training ninjutsu. Naruto was sure that the ANBU and maybe some other patrols saw that, and that at least some people would put it down into their reports but he had reduced the number of clones, as the old Hokage had ordered. A number of clones was working on developing his skills that he learned trained in Wave, while a few others started with more demanding chakra control, like water walking or leaf spinning exercise – a advanced version of the leaf concentration exercise thought at the academy. The last few clones were busy with experimenting to infuse wind chakra into his weapons.

During the weekend after he returned from lunch at Ichiraku's he found that someone had started his own training at his preferred training ground. A girl around his own age, brown hair gathered up in two buns, pink blouse and dark green pants was tormenting a training dummy with a large assortment of throwing weapons and a few more that one should not be able to throw. "Was that a mace?" Zabuza asked from the back of his mind.

Before Naruto could answer the girl spun around and held a kunai ready to throw at a moments notice. Now the blond had made no secret out of his approach, and therefore was quiet surprised: "Whoa, no need to kill me, I was training here for the whole week and coming back from lunch."

The girl dropped the weapon and blushed.

"Tenten, right?" Naruto then asked.

The girl the rose her weapon in a defensive stance and asked: "Yes, how do you know?"

"I admit, I haven't seen you in ages but a long time ago we used to live in the same orphanage."

"Oh, blond hair, blue eyes, whisker marks... Naruto? What has it been, eight years? Of course I have heard of your adventures at the academy. Tell me, how often did you paint the Hokage monument?"

With a wide grin Naruto answered: "Eight times, but I only finished three of those before I was caught. Led a couple of Jounin onto a chase for nearly an hour those times. Only weird thing is that it was Iruka who caught me all eight times. Can you answer me a question? You know, throwing weapons aren't my speciality but I am a bit surprised. I never sorted maces and kusarigama into that category."

"You should know how hard it is for an orphan to get to good techniques. While my sensei takes his work serious he limits himself onto taijutsu due to my teammate Lee, who can't use external chakra. Well Neji is purely taijutsu as well, so I don't get instruction on nin or genjutsu. The library hardly has any techniques in it, to get access to the archives you need approval of the council and they deem Genin not ready for those techniques in there. That leaves me with taijutsu, which is decent I think, and my weapons. And I train often and hard, so by now I can throw nearly everything and hit a stationary target. Moving targets with kunai, shuriken and senbon as well."

"A weapon mistress, huh? Any good with a sword?" Naruto wanted to know unsealing his preferred ninjato.

Tenten answered sounding dejected: "You know that kenjutsu styles are considered family secrets here. Even if I don't really understand it, there are hardly any swordsman in Hidden Leaf. So I know the basic moves, but no actual style."

"You up for a short spar anyway?" Tenten nodded and withdrew a relative short wakizashi from one of her storage scrolls.

Standing a short distance from each other Tenten attacked trying to slash Naruto's sword wielding hand. The blonde deflected the attack, while spinning out of her way. Tenten's momentum carried her two steps further and before she could react Naruto's blade was pointed into her back. The girl froze.

Stepping back commented: "While we both have no experience in a swordfight at least I have access to a style."

"Where did you get it?"

Naruto's grin turned feral: "I acquired it during our last mission. It's a variation of Mist's Silent Homicide Style for smaller swords mainly used by their hunter-nin squads. It works well with the Hidden Mist Technique."

The way he said acquired made Tenten gulp. Seeing her unease about it he offered: "You know, I can make you a copy of the scroll, I'll even add instructions for the Hidden Mist Technique. You just have to agree to spar with me every now and then."

"Why not, we orphans have to stick together against those clan members after all."

* * *

On his way to his first team meeting after the mission to Wave Naruto ran across an unexpected sight. On one of the training grounds not far from the bridge his team often met, the one nearest the memorial stone, the old Hokage stood in full black armour demolishing training dummies left and right with a bo. The blond stopped and shouted towards the old man: "What brought you out here?"

"I found out that mission assignments don't need the Hokage's signature, only his presence, so I left a shadow clone there. Another one is sorting through the paperwork. Well, honestly I do not know what that one is up to, but yesterday the clone assigned to that task read over the village charter and more recent law's and then proceeded sending about half the paperwork back due to incorrect format or missing information. Anything he could send back to the civilian part of the council and various clan heads. Now I am trying to get my body back into shape after years that I have been stuck behind that desk." Sarutobi answered.

Carefully pushing his chakra into the moisture in the morning air, similar to how the Hidden Mist Technique worked, without drawing additional water into the air, Naruto spread his senses out. While some people had managed to copy the hand seals for the technique one way or the other during the years nobody ever managed to use it to the same extent as the Mist's silent killing specialists. That was because the secret to sense other people in the mist it created was by keeping ones chakra in the water droplets and therefore sensing other people's chakra. Additional this made the usage of both of the Leaf's dojutsu near useless, because the chakra served as smokescreen that suppressed the sharingan's ability to predict movement by reading a persons chakra flow or locating a single chakra source in the mist at all and the byakugan is rendered useless due to all the chakra in the air, and since those eyes allow to see chakra it is a similar sensation as looking into the sun. While Hyuuga clan members were often trained since they first managed to activate the eye technique how to ignore single chakra sources, like jutsu and focus on small details, like tenketsu, having your whole vision filled by chakra is something else entirely.

Sensing nobody near Naruto asked: "Did anything come out of the seal?"

Sarutobi closed his eyes for a moment, most likely searching for spy's himself: "Unfortunate yes, but nothing concrete. It seems as Neko should have never seen this seal, as she was not cleared for the project. The orders on which it was started apparently never existed, not even in the reports that don't officially exist, some of the people working on the project do not exist, no birth certificates, immigration notices, mentioning on the ninja or civilian register, no mission reports with their names on, no death certificates, nothing. Everybody else who exists and knew about it is dead. Troubling as well is that it seems as if I as Hokage don't possess the clearance to open some of those files concerning the seal. Also research into the council member that you assume was the one who placed the seal was troubling. He might has had connections to Iwa as well as the fourth Mizukage and most troubling of all Orochimaru after he fled the village. Now that's not all, after the investigation started an ANBU member nobody has ever seen before tried to stop it. We took him in for questioning but he died soon after. He had a seal on his tongue preventing him from talking as well as a remote activated seal on his heart that stopped it. Very troubling indeed."

Naruto nodded, not having expected to get any detail beyond yes or no, it was a matter of village security after all. He then said: "I got to run, team meeting even if Kakashi will be late again." Sarutobi smiled, waving goodbye and then returned to doing katas with his bo.

* * *

A few days of gruesome of D-Rank missions, including Tora the cat – twice, and useless attempts of teamwork training, Sakura was still prone to attack Naruto instead of the enemy and Sasuke thought everyone else beneath him – but even the blonde had to admit he was good at making distractions, those fireballs seemed kinda useless otherwise, followed.

Just as Naruto resigned himself to just another day of weeding a garden or other similar tasks when Kakashi asked for another C-Rank mission. The description sounded easy: a village in the mountains two days of travel from Leaf village for a civilian, or rookie Genin, had a problem with repeated bandit attacks. They had hired a team of ninja to get rid of the threat.

Apparently the Hokage wanted Naruto's teammates to make their first kill as well, most likely hoping it would bring Sakura out of her fangirl tendencies. Iruka, who was once again present while team 7 received a C-Rank looked worried but refrained from commenting.

After Kakashi ordered them to be ready at the gates to leave in an hour and the rest of the team had left Naruto hung back and asked the Hokage, since no other team was present at the moment: "And, your clones caused any trouble lately."

The old man grinned wide and answered, his own prankster tendencies showing: "Nothing much, but the one responsible for the paperwork decided it was time to designate some work to others and then proceeded to send a copy of every business application that was submitted the last month to every single member of the civilian council. The fun part is, while they are a lot of work to look over if everything is in order they only need one signature, not that of half the council."

Iruka and the three ninja that were part of the administration that where present had their jaw's hanging at the confession of the village leader. "Well then make sure the village is still standing when I come back." Naruto said and waved goodbye.

* * *

After one and a half day of travel, they were able to travel through the trees using chakra after all, but not long due to Sakura's low reserves, the four shinobi arrived at the specified village. At first glance it looked rather poor, the people living mostly from hunting and selling furs as well as the occasional traveller on his way to the shrine higher up in the mountains, but when one looked closer he could see that some of the damage did not originate from age and negligence but from blunt weapons. The villagers seemed to be in a rather bad condition, most of them showing signs of malnutrition, and obvious wounds here and there. Mostly broken bones. Looking around more closely revealed a lot of sick people.

Introducing themselves to the mayor, who sent the request the four shinobi prepared a base of operation in the small inn and started to wait for the aggressors. Naruto decided to take a short nap, because he was the one who kept guard the later part of the night during the travel. The other three searched for their own occupation since all they could do now was waiting. None of the villagers was able to give them any precise information about the attackers, about the only thing they found out was that they were tall, carried some kind of mace and that everybody who went too far into the woods off the road did not return. Kakashi spend his time as always, reading his book, while Sasuke was brooding and Sakura tried to coax him into a conversation.

Later in the evening Kakashi suddenly looked up from his book and frowned. "Follow me." he ordered sounding annoyed.

Leaving through the window and onto the rooftops the three Genin pursued their teacher to the village edge. In the dark one could see three shapes. Each of them far taller than the average human and of a broad build. Over their shoulders they carried what appeared to be small tree trunks. Kakashi frowned again, for once his precious book not in front of his face: "Those aren't normal bandits their chakra levels are far too high. But there is something weird about their chakra."

Naruto was surprised, having neither expected Kakashi to be a sensor, at least a short range one, nor that he was attentive enough to sense the threat. Sure, the intruders were already less than three hundred meters from the inn, but it was still unexpected. Naruto mustered the shapes in the dark that slowly approached more closely. Were those horns? And claws? Did the one in the middle have green skin? "Oni (1)" he suddenly declared.

Sakura answered by trying to hit him onto the head: "Idiot, there are no such things as oni."

"Sure there are, but for some reason they do not approach heavily populated areas." Naruto answered.

Sasuke, while unsure about the fact of their existence, was thrilled about the prospect of fighting a strong opponent. "I'll take the one on the right." he declared before charging without thinking.

"I think we should help, sensei." Naruto said sarcastically throwing a kunai at the middle beasts head before trying to lure it into the woods and away from the village, throwing various weapons towards the oni and taunting it all the way. Kakashi shrugged and followed his students example.

Arriving in a clearing the Jounin decided to test his red skinned opponent. After a few fast tests with pure taijutsu he could say that while the yokai was not very fast compared to a skilled shinobi he could certainly deal a lot of damage with his kanabo. For a moment he was worried about his students, but then shrugged it off. It was after all their decision to charge head first without making a plan.

Sitting still for a moment Kakashi tried to decide his course of action. Close combat wouldn't do, because he lacked the destructive power needed to bring his opponent down. The light bruises he inflicted with kunai and shuriken had also head already as well. So throwing weapons were our. He wasn't sure how genjutsu would affect the oni's foreign chakra system and it was not his speciality anyway. Ninjutsu it was.

Eyeing his surroundings for a moment for any advantages he pulled a replacement technique. And not one second to late, because the tree was reduced to splinters by a irate oni. The enemy threw his head into every direction to see where to his prey escaped. Thinking fast Kakashi created an earth dragon that shot mud into the oni's back. The beast turned and charged destroying the dragon, nearly completely unaffected by it's missiles only to find that that annoying human has disappeared again. Suddenly the earth split open and the oni was pulled down.

Kakashi appeared near it looking at it's head and commented: "Didn't think that would work." Then proceeding to charge a Chidori and drive it through his enemy's head for good measure. It had proved to be resistant to damage and possessing an high healing factor after all. Pulling his favourite book out of his pouch Kakashi slowly made his way back towards the village.

* * *

Luring his green skinned opponent away from the village wasn't that hard. Deciding to test his training Naruto pulled out his ninjato and flashed through a sequence of one handed seals. Thick mist started to gather obscuring the already bad vision even further. The blonde closed his eyes and concentrated on his hearing, smelling and his chakra infused into the mist.

He heard something taking a sip of liquid. "Sake most likely" Haku commented from the back of his head "Oni are known for drinking that a lot."

Slowly approaching his enemy – the stench and grunts were not to miss, not even talking about the absence of mist in that specific area – Naruto thought his options over. His knowledge of anatomy was limited, and while he would have taken the change against a human and went for the heart his opponent wasn't exactly human. Going for the neck would provide him with a sure kill, but he would have to jump for that, which would make him vulnerable and lower his strength. Therefore he decided sneaking nearer that it was the right arm, the one holding the mace.

Standing behind his target Naruto had the feeling the oni must have heard him by now. After all his breathing seemed awfully loud and his heard was pounding even louder. But the attack never came. Instead the young shinobi brought his sword down, intent to sever the arm at the elbow. The attack struck but the sword bounced back. While Naruto was mentally swearing Zabuza screamed in his head: "Duck" Luckily for the blonde he followed the advice because milliseconds later the oni's left arm, still holding the sake bottle, passed through the area where his head was before.

Naruto stepped a few steps back before channelling a large amount of wind chakra into his blade. He coursed himself that he hadn't thought about that before. Slowly the young shinobi approached his prey again, which has gotten more difficult, because his enemy was now moving as well, searching for a human to squish. They circled each other a few times neither too sure who was hunter and who prey.

Finally Naruto saw an opening and cut the oni's left arm just below the shoulder. The wind infused blade clearly showing its superiority towards a not chakra reinforced one. The yokai let out a deafening roar that echoed through the woods. Stomping the ground hard enough to throw Naruto off balance the oni started to swing his mace wildly. Caught off guard the weapon glanced the shinobi at his hip and sent him flying. 'Note to self: don't get hit by that thing.' Naruto thought to himself causing his companions to snicker despite the fact that they had felt the force of the blow themselves.

The pain had the side effect that the shinobi lost his control over the mist and it started to be blown away by the wind. Being once again able to see his surroundings Naruto could to his horror observe how the oni brought the cut off limb up to the shoulder where it reattached itself again. His opponent seemed at least somewhat used to the sensation because he proceeded to go into the offence. Destroying trees left and right the oni tried to hit his elusive opponent and Naruto was very thankful for every help he could get, because without Haku and Zabuza's warnings he would have been crushed after the third swing. Pulling of the replacement technique Naruto started to flash through hand seals as fast as he could. Whispering 'Thousand Water Needles of Death' the moisture of the air started to draw together into needles that assaulted the green skinned creature. Unfortunate this did not seem to cause any damage but only to further enrage his opponent. And the rage seemed to cause the yokai to move faster than before.

Limited to dodging Naruto feared for his life. Fortunately for him the oni managed to somehow wedge his kanabo in the destroyed trees after nearly two minutes of dodging and hasty replacements that brought him not nearly far enough to mount any kind of counter-attack.

Seeing the opportunity the blonde created a quartet of shadow clones that went for a limb each, while the original waited with wind-charged blade until the oni dropped due to loss of legs and then went for the neck.

Seeing that his opponent was dead he uses it's loincloth to remove the blood from the blade and then hurried back towards the village.

* * *

Sasuke cursed out loud. This barbaric creature was far stronger that he anticipated. It wasn't fair, after all an Uchiha should be able to easily dispose off such an lowly opponent with ease. Before his thoughts could turn to his brother he was interrupted by another crushing blow that he hastily dodged. It wasn't like in the fight against that fake hunter-nin who's movements he could barely read, even with his sharingan, his problem was that the oni was clearly stronger than him and his own attacks didn't seem to do any damage. After his taijutsu attacks did not seem to do any damage he fell back and tried his newest technique, Fire Release: Phoenix Immortal Fire, even including shuriken. While it did some damage the oni did not seem fazed by the attack, only more enraged. A follow up Grand Fireball was dodged.

Since non of his skills seemed to work Sasuke spend almost ten minutes trying to get away from his attacker. He come to the conclusion that he was too weak and needed more training. The chase went on and on, but the Uchiha's stamina slowly but surely came to an end. Jumping down from a tree that was just reduced to toothpicks Sasuke stumbled. Seeing a spiked mace approaching while he was still off balance he closed his eyes and tried to force a replacement without hand seals. After all Kakashi had done it, why shouldn't he be able to do it? He felt something impacting his body. He heard bones snapping.

Opening his eyes he asked surprised: "Sakura?" Meanwhile the oni snarled in rage. The pink haired weakling had pushed his prey out of the way. That wasn't how it is supposed to be. Lifting his mace once again he saw his target jump away with the other human. This was getting frustrating.

Picking up Sakura Sasuke jumped into the trees again. Even if he couldn't stand the girl he couldn't just leave here there. She had saved his life after all. Checking the pink haired kunoichi the Uchiha could see that her arm was clearly broken. It did stand in an unnatural angel after all. Jumping towards the village Sasuke tried to come up with a plan to neutralise his enemy. All he could think of would need previous preparation, such as pitfalls. Placing Sakura on the rooftop of the first house after exiting the forest Sasuke turned around and froze.

Behind him stood the oni, one hand held high and preparing to bring the mace down, the other fumbling around his loincloth belt trying to retrieve a bottle of sake. The beast roared out loud. The situation was familiar. But this time nobody would push him out of the way. Sasuke was frozen in fear for his life. Ironically, if he moved his life would be spared and only Sakura would be crushed.

* * *

Naruto was worried. While he did not like his teammates he did not want them to die either. Sure, one was a stuck up, arrogant egocentric brooder and the other one a rabid fangirl that treated him quiet badly, but that did not justify wishing them dead. Thinking back to his stance towards Sakura before he removed the seal he was confused. There wasn't any type of attraction to speak of, beside his need to call attention to himself. And while most students of his class would stay away from him, either due to the fact that their parents warned them off, group pressure or simple that they didn't care, Sakura always did react to him. Negative most of the time, but she did react. It was most likely due to the girls fangirl tendencies that he even started asking her out, because it caused even more of a reaction than otherwise. But then again he didn't even know what love was, neither back then nor now. He shoved the thought into the back of his mind, after all he would most likely find out in due time, and concentrated on the objective of the mission.

Looking back at their spars there was no way that Sakura could call upon the raw strength that would be needed to injure the oni. Here arsenal of weapons was limited to kunai and shuriken and as he could tell those did no damage, even if you hit the eyes. Her arsenal of ninja techniques was limited to the so called academy three, with would only be useful in evading and by the book academy taijutsu. No good prospective.

Sasuke on the other hand had slightly better chances. More strength, precision with weapons and more speed compared to Sakura. He also carried fuma-shuriken and ninja wire with him. Not that it would do him any good. A fuma -shuriken was after all less sharp than his ninjato and would bounce off the thick skin of their opponent and the beasts raw strength was most likely enough to snap those wires. His Uchiha clan's special style of taijutsu relied on intercepting enemy attacks and countering them, which was no good idea against an opponent who could beak every single bone in your body not even counting their weapons. While not sure if any of those fancy fire techniques would help him Naruto thought back on the two he had seen Sasuke use. The Phoenix Immortal Fire would most likely hit, the small fireballs having proven to be quiet fast moving, but would not do much damage. After all he had taken the brunt of one of those before and it was not too bad. A scorched orange pants and some red skin beneath. The Great Fireball on the other hand had proved to be easily dodged. Taking a lot of preparation time with its kinda long chain of hand seals and after expulsion only travelling quiet slow. Naruto wasn't sure if he ever saw Sasuke hit something with that move – well beside some trees and training dummies.

Reaching the forest edge Naruto created a handful of clones and sent them for the oni while he himself hung back a little bit. He saw the beast rise it's mace and storming towards a house where he could make out a figure on the roof. One clone severed the arm and the red skinned enemy roared out loud. "You're not hurt, are you ... scaredy-cat?" asked Naruto from behind Sasuke, sounding highly amused.

Anger overtook the Uchiha as the blond spoke the same words he had used back after the daemon brother had attacked. Not only was his teammate able to severely injure the enemy, but he also had the gall to taunt him over it. Sending a blow right into Naruto's face, only for him to dissipate into smoke Sasuke started to form hand seals. Since four Naruto's were keeping the beast busy, it was trying to hit them with a sake bottle of all things, he thought that was the ideal opportunity to kill it and hurt his teammate for the insult in the same go.

After loudly shouting "Fire Style: Grand Fireball" the Uchiha drew deep breath and then exhaled a big ball of fire that then engulfed the enemy and caused four versions of Naruto to burst into smoke. As the fireball vanished a slightly charred oni roared in anger. Only to be figuratively cut off by a blade through the neck. Looking up at the Uchiha, who was fuming at someone for stealing his kill, Naruto declared: "You know, if that had been me and not just clones in close combat you could be tried in court martial."

And that was the scene that Kakashi found when he exited the forest. Two boys glaring fiercely at each other over a charred, headless body while their unconscious and injured teammate lay at the feet of one of the boys. Not that Kakashi cared. The enemy was dead and his precious book was more important.

* * *

Sarutobi sighted at the oral report of Kakashi concerning the mission. Only three of the cell of four were present. Sakura was in hospital and even with the advantages medical ninjutsu presented them over the civilian methods to treat injuries it would still take a while before she was able to fully utilise that arm again. A week most likely, maybe two. Discretely mentioning for Naruto to stay back the Hokage dismissed the team.

"Anything you want to add?" the old man asked.

"I'll write my own report again" the young boy answered.

"I've encountered oni before. You know, such beings were sighted much more commonly before humans started to seal the bijuu. Back in my youth I killed my fair share of oni as well as other yokai." Sarutobi closed his eyes as if remembering something long in the past. "And I know that oni are not brought down easily. Kakashi never mentioned how you two killed your respective enemies. Care to elaborate?"

"Two necks severed by a wind infused blade. Seemed to be the only thing in my arsenal that worked." Naruto answered.

"Not that much of a surprise, not much skills the average Genin possesses works against those. I was unsure how the Uchiha brought his enemy down since I know from personal experience that their fireballs only serve to enrage oni more. Ah, good times." Sarutobi said, lost in memories while lighting his pipe.

* * *

Sakura was lying on her hospital bed. There wasn't much that she could do. After all Kakashi-sensei and that idiot Naruto had run off with them. But at least she had show her Sasuke-kun that she was worth to be his wife. After all she had taken that hit for arm was broken, but with those medical techniques she would be able to go onto mission with her Sasuke again in a week or so. Maybe she should learn medical techniques too? After all it would help Sasuke. And maybe she would be able to see him naked while treating his wounds. She giggled at the thought.

* * *

Sasuke was furious. He had incarcerated training dummies within the Uchiha compound as long as he had chakra available. How dare that Naruto steal his kill. How dare that dead last be able to severely injure an enemy he couldn't kill. He wanted that power. He needed that power. After all he had to kill his brother. Naruto was only an orphan with no goal and no ambition. The annoying blonde didn't need power. But he needed power. Frustrated Sasuke went back into his house. After all he had a week to train before he had to meet those annoying teammates of his again. He would show them, he would get stronger soon.

* * *

Kakashi was sitting in a secluded booth sipping on a glass of sake and giggling at something he read in his little orange book. Soon Kurenai and Asuma approached his table. "Hey Kakashi" the chain smoker greeted.

The copy nin just lifted an arm as greeting, never taking his eyes of the book.

Kurenai frowned at the book. How often she had tried to steal it and then burn it. Nor was she the only kunoichi who had tried. Maybe she should hire a Genin team for a mission. It was worth a thought. And if she could get some other to join she might even be able to hire an full jounin squad. Glaring she decided she would not talk to that man as long as he looked into his book.

"So how are you doing Kakashi? The little monsters making any trouble." Asuma wanted to know.

Kakashi glanced at him for a second and then answered: "We're on leave, girl got herself an broken arm."

"How did she manage that, falling off a roof while tiling?"

"No, C-Rank in the mountains, bandit extermination, you know. Turned out to be a trio of oni."

"Oni?" Asuma frowned "You know that those give most chunin trouble?"

"Is that so, the brats managed just fine, well beside the girl." Kakashi asked unconcerned before demonstrating his disinterest by standing up and with one last wave leaving.

Turning to Kurenai Asuma said: "Oni? If there really were oni than my old man is likely to upgrade that mission to a B-Rank. Well what do you think, should we send our Genin on a C-Rank as well?"

"I think it's time, and Kiba gets very vocal about it lately. It has been three months since their graduation at the academy after all."

* * *

AN:

(1) Oni: Mystical creatures that strongly resemble ogres. While some of them are good willed and protectors of shires specifically, the red and green variation is said to be malicious and carry the trait of spreading disease. Strong physically, able to fly and the ability to reattach limbs are associated with oni.

I've done a little research into Japanese mythology, mainly to be able to create an extended background for the story. Seeing as a nine-tailed kitsune, a tanuki and a nekomata are mentioned in the manga I thought: why not include various different yokai from Japanese mythology. Bear with me, because my research is only limited to the surface. My knowledge about Greek, Norse and Germanic mythology is far more comprehensive, but I don't think I will include anything of those in here.

Writing this had brought me back to reading the early chapters of the manga. Since I last watched those story arcs on TV seems like ages, reading those has been even longer. Now I had somewhere in my mind that Iruka rants at Naruto before getting assigned the mission to Wave about them not even being Genin for two months (but I can't find it any more, will still assume so). If you assume one month in Wave than it would be awfully short three months between becoming Genin and the Chunin exams. As it is indicated that Team Gai waited a full year to participate (meaning the exam must be held one a year) it would seem even more surprising that they are nominated. Now I decided that there has to be some time in-between and fill those gaps. After all can't copy the series and enter Naruto and Sakura into the exam with the exact same skill set as they finished the academy.

Some scenes did not come out as I wanted them too, but well, they did net let themselves rewrite better as well.

Addressing reviews:

Thanks to all encouraging reviews I recived.

*Shadow clone rant: "Kage Bushin no Jutsu – Kakashi style" as well as the hand seal used indicates Shadow clones, the few images before he uses it indicate some trickery – as in clones. The core problem is the chakra levels. If Naruto can pull of several hundred Shadow Clones multiple times and a Jounin is out of chakra after more than a few dozens that would destroy every sense of balance and overpower Naruto. I therefore assume Shadow Clones are less dependant on chakra control than other techniques. After all it splits the chakra and does not need a fixed amount. Another assumption is that it is a kinjutsu not because of the chakra requirements but because extensive use leads to brain damage. 2-3 over some time or up to a dozen in a fight that are dispelled fast will do, but more will be bad for ones health. (Need to find a way to ensure Naruto runs into problems with these – otherwise his growth would be a bit too fast)

*Bashing: Since it was mentioned and I thought it over I agree to some degree. Offending name calling is not the way to do it. I try to develop their characters a bit, without being offensive, doesn't mean I like them any more than before and the reader is even less likely to like them. In here also falls the point of Naruto's attraction to Sakura. I at first planed to make it gradual, but it just did never come out right, I hope the one scene in this chapter eases it a bit.

*More paragraphs, especially when speaking: try to, this chapter better?


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Life was good for Naruto. He had another week off before he had to meet with his team again. Due to the fact that he got payment for all those D-Ranks as well as two upgraded C-Ranks he had no trouble with money at the moment and was even able to get something to the side. Zabuza always said something about he would need it at some point in the future for something specific, but did not elaborate further.

The day before he had met Tenten again. The girl was positively giddy about something when they met. After a spar during which Naruto was very surprised at how fast the weapon mistress had picked up onto the kenjutsu style, he asked her what got her so happy. She then proceed to tell that their teacher had told them that if they manage to get in a clear hit against him in a spar he would teach them something they individually asked him for. Clearly surprised by her use of the Hidden Mist Technique she managed to hit Gai with the flat of her sword's blade onto the neck. Though he might have held back. While she said she could have forgone his rant about her youthfulness, she had then proceeded and asked him about basic elemental manipulation. While she tested as fire on the affinity paper, she decided to train water up first, as she was already quiet proficient with the Hidden Mist Technique.

Later the day during his evening jog he ran across what could only be the girl's teacher and fellow teammate. Identical green jumpsuits, black shiny bowl cut and thick eyebrows. Seeing that Naruto was able to keep up with them for a full lap around the village the smaller version challenged him to a sparing match.

It was brutal and short. Only seconds after thick mist started to cover the training ground small water needles pelted Lee until he dropped to the ground in pain.

After an admission that his taijutsu was nothing to be proud off compared to his ninjutsu he got an invitation for training with them, which Naruto politely declined. After all he had heard of the duo's training sessions from Tenten and preferred adapting his kenjutsu to kunai in a tough spot to that regime any day. Though he did agree to look into wooden weapons to spar with Lee from time to time.

Honestly, something that could not be lethal in combat for training was a new concept for Naruto. After all his two constant companions warned him when his clones got too near scoring a hit, his clones simply dispelled when hit, blunt or sharp no matter, Tenten seemed to favour sharp weapons for practice as well and Kakashi never was concerned those few sparing sessions they had. But then again, what did concern the copy cat at all?

Today he had a very specific target in mind. While the library did not house any techniques at all, he found out that it was useful in other ways. The main section included books on strategy, mostly in guise of history books, anatomy and geography. All useful topics in his mind even if it was a bit dry reading material. He would have a few transformed clones read some of those books.

Now the shinobi section was more guarded and therefore using more than one clone was prone to fail, because the transformation technique would be noticed. But then again it held much more interesting reading material, not that all was available to Genin, but it was enough. In depth theory of elemental manipulation, unfortunate wind seemed to be nearly non-existent, but the water section would help him further. Subelements were also missing even the Senju prized Wood Release, but he did not expect that. After all bloodline concerning material was classified.

Advanced chakra control theory was also something he would look into when he found the time. Ninjutsu creation theory had hooked his clone yesterday. What he also decided was a must read was a big book on sealing theory. Now that was purely theory, no single array in the whole book, but it seemed quiet comprehensive. Knowing the arrays making up explosive and storage seals Naruto was sure that he would at least be able to tinker with those. And use Shadow Clones for the experiments, just to be sure. Would do him no good to perish in an sealing accident after all. But the library was that, all purely theory, over half of it never confirmed and about a fifth never even tried to be tested. Those concepts were really more useful to further something you know already instead of learning something new.

It was just as Tenten had complained. Clan members were trained by their families parallel to the academy and then people were surprised that clan members performed superior to non clan shinobi. Further into the career the clan members had further advantages by having access to special clan techniques, including common stuff like the body flicker technique.

While the library existed and held shinobi related materials they were no good if one lacked the foundation and bookwork made no ninja. Now there were the technique archives at the Hokage tower, the academy and the ANBU headquarters, but without the approval of the council no Genin could access those, even the one at the academy, which was long ago declared to only hold non-elemental techniques up to D-Rank. And access was granted almost never. The only Genin who currently was in possession of one was Sasuke Uchiha, but he never applied for his and never used it. Chunin on the other hand had free access to the primary archives at the academy and only needed permission from the Hokage to use the ones at the tower.

Dropping off a few clones that immediately transformed sans one Naruto returned to his favourite trainings ground. Maybe he was now strong enough to start training with Head Cutter, the sword that marks one as a member of the feared Seven Swordsman.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen was sure of one thing: the theory that Shadow Clones were exact copies of the original was clearly false. He thought a moment about asking Naruto about his experience but then dismissed the thought. His own observations were good enough.

Those things always seemed to pronounce a certain aspect of his personality. He even thought that there might be a connection with the purpose the clone was created for. The one handing out missions often seemed to assume the mask he often wore during wartime, the one of the hardened killer that was hailed the 'Shinobi no Kami' – 'God of Shinobi'. Meanwhile the clone assigned to paperwork seemed to be even more focused on getting rid of it instead of doing it himself.

Not that he minded, the clone looking over the laws and regulation, as well as revoking several dozen administrative missives that collected over the last fifty years led to an decrease of nearly sixty percent of the paperwork that he had to proceed.

What could cause him problems was the fact that the clone seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in causing other people more work. He had to be careful, it wouldn't do to get rid of some pieces of bureaucracy, because he needed to be aware of certain going ons.

Also this research had granted him the opportunity to take back quiet a lot of power from the council. If he could tie down a penetrator for these ongoings some execution would follow. Holding a council session during the time when Kyuubi was less than three miles from the village proper? While all but two clan head – those being the Uchiha and Senju – out there actively fighting? And the Senju was excused as she was nowhere near the village during that time nor present to any council session since.

He did not know exactly who was present, as there where only three seals on the legislature proceeded, the civilian seal, the shinobi's seal and the elders seal and no signature, but he was able to revoke it, because it was filed wrong. After all the Hokage's seal was missing. The only direct penetrator he was certain of was already dead – one Uchiha Fugaku.

His renewed training came along nicely. After all he did make sure that his body was in a good shape, even during times he was absolutely flooded by paperwork. A Kage must be able to defend his village all the time after all. He had also decided that his genjutsu needed some brushing up, while his ninjutsu and bojutsu were his greatest strengths he wasn't too sure how well his body would do against a younger opponent. And there was the fact that his instincts told him that there was war in the future. He was not one to ignore this instinct, after all it had helped him too often before. Trouble was stirring. Since Sarutobi first had the feeling he decided to keep a close eye on the politics outside the village.

Mist was too quiet. Their missing-nin all seemed to disappear over the last few months, with only a few exceptions. And those were mainly the ones that would take more than a three man hunter squad to take down, but from Mist itself there was nothing. Sure, the bounty for Zabuza was paid, but no message, nothing accompanied the money. The few contacts that he had there despite the war were quiet as well.

Rock has recently upped their output from their shinobi academy, even going as far as recruiting some of those who failed over the last few years. While there were rumours about an S-Class missing-nin that had sworn revenge it would not explain such an increase in recruitment. Only one thing would explain something as massive as that. War.

Cloud had taken every opportunity they could get to flaunt their strength. While not actively increasing their shinobi forces there were rumours that they were putting their existing forces through gruesome training to increase their quality. Not that there was proof.

Wind Country was close to civil war. There was nothing one could do about it, because the Daimyo as well as the Kazekage were far too stubborn to give in. It was not even clear what caused the whole mess, but if his feeling was right and war was coming it was unlikely that they could depend on Hidden Sand to hold their back because of this internal struggle.

Other points of interest seemed to be the reigniting civil war in Hidden Rain, even if it was still unclear who fought against Hanzo, and the founding of a new Hidden Village in Rice Country.

And there was the fact that Orochimaru has disappeared after he ran into one of their best spys.

Sarutobi even thought about sending Jiraya out to get Tsunade to return to the village, at least temporary, but then again he had time before the spymaster returned from his latest travel.

* * *

Naruto spend the next few week in something akin of a routine. Most of the time his team would do D-Rank missions, even if they went onto a C-Ranked package delivery and a escort mission since. He was making great improvement with his abilities and proved so every week again sparing with Tenten, and even on occasion with Lee.

After the first purely physical fight against the taijutsu specialist he had sworn to himself he would accept requests for spars against him, but never ask himself. He was just too beat up afterwards. Even with the advantage of a longer reach with his sword and additional help from Haku and Zabuza Lee was just too scary fast, even if he did have to take off his weights if he wanted to win decisively.

Narrow victory or not, those hits hurt. But then again Lee had taken up a few other skills on Naruto's prompting. Much to Gai's dismay the blonde managed to convince his prizes pupil that pulling pranks on ANBU was appropriate training for stealth, trap making and stamina. Even if he preferred taijutsu, he saw reason that there might be an opponent who wasn't defeatable by taijutsu. Doesn't mean one could not rise through the villages ranks with pure speed, strength and hard punches, but it could save someone's life to know a diverted skill set.

He tried to make contact to his classmates who managed to make Genin, but beside Shikamaru and Choji he, or rather his clone, did not spend much time with them. And that clone was only cloud watching for entire afternoons.

On the other hand Neko seemed to remember that he recognised her that day in the Hokage's office and decided to spend time with him from time to time. While she did insist that he called her Yugao off duty he always enjoyed her company, but unfortunate her busy schedule only allowed her time off during weird hours. The second, and till now last time she visited, she even brought him a copy of a few wind techniques she found in the ANBU archive that were not somehow restricted.

His relationship with his team was strained. Sasuke had started to downright loath Naruto, and since he seemed to have stepped up in training and presented a new, half-learned fire technique every week or so the blonde was very wary of sparing against him. Those techniques were not only dangerous for ones enemy but only barely controlled for the user as well as far as Sasuke had learned them.

Sakura, fangirl she was, followed Sasuke in his dislike for Naruto. These days she could be seen reading a basic book on anatomy from time to time giggling madly. The first time he saw this Naruto desperately tried to dispel the genjutsu that Kakashi was using on himself. On a different note from what the blonde could observe it wasn't as if she made any progress reading at all.

Their sensei was his usual lazy self and ignored the increased tension within his team in favour of reading his precious little book. In fact the only time he interfered during a spar while training was when Sasuke had started a forest fire and Naruto's water techniques proved insufficient to contain the spreading flames. But then again, who used widespread fire techniques during midsummer, in a dry forest ,if it hadn't rained in weeks.

When they one day entered the mission hall Iruka and Sarutobi were discussing heatedly. "Ah, good to see you team seven, we have a mission for you." the Hokage said, and Naruto felt it was really the old man and not just some clone of his. How he knew he did not know, but the blonde suspected that it had either something to do with his extensive usage of clones or the fact that he had a known trickster sealed within him. Shrugging his feeling off, he was surprised that the Hokage handed Kakashi a mission scroll marked as C-Ranked.

Kakashi opened the scroll, took a long peak inside it and announced: "Meet me at the main gate in an hour."

* * *

It turned out to be a guarding mission. A minor nobleman form the Daimyo's court received a death threat from a local gang while conducting some business at a port near Tea Country. They were to guard him, either until the threat was over or until he returned to the capital. While in Naruto's mind the easiest solution would have been to simply kill the gang members, after all if they sent death threats to nobleman, what else would they involve themselves in, but Kakashi ordered them him to guard the mansion at night, while the other two would guard their employer during the day. Kakashi himself was likely to absorb himself into his smut. Of course the man had his own samurai guards, but then again he seemed to trust his own safety more with ninjas present.

It had been three days since they first arrived and Naruto circled the large manor house once again during his twelve hour shift. Until now nothing has happened and according to his observations his clones made during the day the proudly displayed Uchiha crest seemed to keep away all seedy characters. He really hoped the calm would last but knew that either the gang would strike soon or they were waiting for reinforcements of some kind. The blackmail letter and the Leaf's own intelligence department indicated that the aggressors were the kind that would not back down easily, even if confronted with shinobi.

Three hours later, clearly after midnight and the regular guards had congressed around the light at the front door Naruto conducted another sweeping of the grounds. He had after all nothing better to do. A few clones were placed around the clients room to make sure nobody who escaped his notice could get to him with impunity. Training while on work was no good idea, OK, he admitted that he created a few clones off duty, but it was not that easy to train without being noticed and even harder with big groups of clones.

Suddenly he heard the noise of steel meeting steel behind the house. Quickly, but stealthily he made his way towards the noise.

Two people were fighting, both clearly shinobi as their movements indicated, one using a short ninjato while the other was attacking with a far longer katana. Now Naruto could not see the face of the one using the shorter sword, but was able to make out that he wore the same kind of mask ANBU tended to use.

His opponent however faced towards the house and Naruto was clearly able to make out his face. His face had this rather easy distinguishable scars clearly stemming from some blade that crossed at his right, non-existent eye. Searching his mind where he had seen the man before he suddenly remembered an entry in the general bingo-book at the library.

While the bingo-books shinobi tended to carry around only showed the profiles of the village's own missing-nin, some high profile from other villages, mostly those operating in Fire Country, and notable shinobi from other villages the general volumes were updated with every scrap of data on every shinobi the village could find. These book were not given to ones shinobi, because of fear of loss, and even the volumes accessible to anyone besides the village leader himself were deprive of truly sensitive information.

But anyway, he remembered that man. He had skimmed through the one in the library and that man's noticeable scar stuck in his mind as a D-Ranked missing-nin from Hidden Mist. He did not remember any further information, but it was rather clear that the rank did not mirror his actual skill.

While the hunter was clearly superior in skill he was unable to go for the kill. Naruto decided not to interfere, since this was clearly an internal matter of another village. Even if the missing-nin was after his client and somehow came out of the fight as a winner he would be weakened.

Watching the fight Naruto noticed something weird. The missing-nin slowly moved and had already made his way halfway around the hunter. All while keeping one foot steady on the ground and thereby creating an half circle on the ground. Based on this observation the blond could then make out some one handed hand seals every once in a while. He was intrigued what the missing-nin planed and if the hunter would notice.

Watching on for another minute before the circle was finished, Naruto slowly spread his chakra into the water around him, be it air moisture or from some other source. Suddenly the missing-nin formed a snake seal and called out: "Earth Release: Gaping Abyss Technique" The inside of the circle suddenly turned black and the sides started to rise at an astonishing speed. For someone trapped inside of the technique it must really look as if he was falling down into the earth. Suddenly the walls collapsed, but did not shatter but rather flow like mud and buried the man trapped in the technique. "That's one down." chuckled the man and bowed down towards towards the hunter checking his pulse "And soon the geezer in there is dead too and then we control all the business in the city." While he bowed down Naruto could make out an skull pierced by a sword tattooed in his neck. A clear sign that he was part of the gang that sent the death threat.

Standing up and whistling a tune the missing-nin turned his focus towards the house. One thing was clear for Naruto, this man was clearly no D-Ranked opponent. The skill with which he tricked the hunter as well as the technique used indicated otherwise.

Staying put he used a bit of pure wind manipulation to distort the air around him. While it did not nearly enough to truly bend the light it was a bit of an additional aid to stay hidden. Naruto was by now wearing black pants, dark blue shirt, a dark green bandanna as well as a similar coloured cloak, but still he wanted to make sure that he was not noticed. After all the shadows were a shinobi's friend, well as long as you weren't fighting a Nara, and he would prefer to end this with as few struggling as possible.

The man scoffed at the guards and muttered: "Useless"

Jumping over the fence, clearly using chakra he entered the back garden and slowly proceeded towards the house. He did not even make two steps before a blade impaled him through the heart. The missing-nin died never seeing the face of his killer, not even thinking of the possibility that there might be another enemy.

"Well, that was unexpected easy." Naruto commented, wiping his blade of at his enemy cloth before sealing his full corpse into a scroll. After all he had a plan concerning something Zabuza did tell him a few weeks ago. But for that he needed the other corpse as well. Quickly pulling out the broken, but still in one piece, body of the hunter-nin Naruto sealed that one too.

Looking around the Genin was surprised that there were no onlookers. While his fight ended short and silent the fight between the two Mist ninja was all but quiet. But even in this rich part of the village where everybody was able to hire guards nobody had noticed the disturbance. Unconsciously mimicking the man he had just killed Naruto scoffed "Useless" Then he proceeded with his guard duty.

* * *

Tomorrow would be the last day of the mission in Port Kamome, because the client would leave then. Naruto was making his way over the rooftops to a specific location. It was impressive how many things one could learn listening in on the talk in the streets. There he had learned that a certain shop was likely to go bankrupt soon, because he was selling only ninja tools and 'weird ninja scrolls'.

Having learned that the regulations concerning dealing with knowledge of ninja techniques and ninja equipment were far less restrictive outside of the Hidden Leaf Village Naruto decided to take a look. Maybe he would even be able to find some wind techniques. It was kinda surprising, but if one looked at elemental affinities one could learn that each major village had it's highest number of affinities with the element the country it is situated in is named after while the element weak against this was nearly non existent. For example, Mist had many water users, but nearly no fire users at all. Same for Leaf village, many fire users but only two wind users among thousands of shinobi. Therefore wind techniques were rare.

Even more restrictive was the law that if a clan could be named who clearly brought a technique into the village they had the right to veto everyone learning the technique. While Sarutobi insisted it was a measure to calm down the clans, that the Uchiha did not invite them to join the village only because they wanted to steal the techniques, it turned out to be quiet the other way around. The Uchiha copied a massive amount of techniques and therefore brought them to the village. Now shortly before his demise the former clan head Fugaku decided that it was a good idea to issue a blank veto for all Uchiha techniques. Which included about 80% of the villages wind techniques. Not that the current head, Sasuke, would do anything to remove that veto. In fact, Naruto was unsure if the boy was even aware of his position as clan head and council member.

But now Naruto was a man on a mission until he suddenly stopped hearing his clients name spoken on a balcony beneath him.

"So Kaito really failed to kill him? He always bragged that he would sooner blow up the whole neighbourhood including himself before he would fail to kill that man."

"Yes, it is surprising, he was such a promising fighter after all and would have made it easier to keep control of the import business, but such is life."

"So we really are gonna attack tonight, in full force?"

"We have too, that arrogant snob leaves tomorrow in the morning."

"Anything come out of the investigation into that ninja?"

"While the kid may carry the Uchiha crest he is just that a kid. And I think that that other, pink haired kid is not even able to defeat a puppy in combat. They should cause no problems."

"What about a possible babysitter? This is as far as information goes the last Uchiha after all."

"I do not think so, Tsubasa after all said that when he had to leave the area Kaito was fighting someone from Mist and nobody from the manor interfered or even noticed. After all a good ninja would have noticed the fight."

"Well then, tonight at midnight, I will bring all our forces."

"Very good. When the sun rises tomorrow we will control this harbour."

Naruto silently jumped to the next roof and thought about what to do. While he would have the opportunity to remove two of the leaders there is no saying that there aren't more. And the brawls without brains would possibly cause problems as well. No, better be prepared and await them where all would come and the problem could be solved once and for all. While removing the two speaker would possibly cure the problem short term there was no saying that the rest would not come back and cause more trouble.

Proceeding towards the store that he wanted to explore he thought over his options of ambushes that could be pulled of against an attacking force.

Opening the door he noticed an old man sitting behind a counter. "Ah, welcome young shinobi. My name is Takehiko, how can I help you? And if you don't mind please put everything back to the same place you found it. It gets a bit confusing otherwise." the man greeted.

Taking a closer look Naruto notices the unfocused eyes associated with blindness.

"Oh an vigilant one, observing ones potential enemies before even making a move. Rare these days." said Takehiko sounding amused.

"I take it you were once an shinobi yourself?" Naruto asked, carefully observing the smooth movements the old man made.

"Oh yes, I was once a skilled fighter. Never built much of a reputation as all those youngsters seem to aim for, but I can honestly say that I was the most skilled assassination expert in Hidden Whirlpool. Unfortunate after the last war started on my last mission, killing the Earth Country Daimyo, I was poisoned and lost my eyesight. I managed to flee but the retaliation attack led to a siege of my village that was later destroyed by Rock's forces. Now tell me a bit about yourself, and your preferred fighting style so that I can help you better choosing." Deciding that even if he was a threat it wasn't likely that he would kill him on the spot, so Naruto decided to give him some information.

"Name's Naruto, Genin of Hidden Leaf. I mostly fight using a ninjato utilising the Silent Homicide Style. I also am quiet good with the low level water support techniques, mainly Hidden Mist and Water Clones. Basics of wind manipulation, my affinity to enhance the swords edge. That's also what I am mainly looking for, since wind techniques are rare in my village. I've got one of Hachiman's blessed blades, but ain't able to use that one to it's full extent. I'd also look into any information on sub elements you might have."

"Now that's an interesting customer for a change. You know, most people coming here, and even those are rare, maybe two a week, are civilians wanting to look at ninja weapons. If I sell a sword to every fourth of them than that is a good month. Poor quality of course, but they won't channel chakra into the blade, won't they. You know I have this shop since twenty years, since not too long after Whirlpool fell. And I think I can say you are the single most interesting Genin that came in here. If this continues than you might even become the single most interesting customer I ever had. Now subelements, lets see, I should have that here somewhere..."

Naruto was very surprised that the man even had something on subelements. According to the Hokage Leaf's policy on those was: either you've got the bloodline or you won't be able to do it.

"Ah, here it is. A scroll on the basics of Storm Element. Now that's heavy stuff, but there is a bloodline clan in Cloud using those and we had a few crazy people in Whirlpool that learned it. Called it the cripple style, because those who were to injured to go out onto mission and did not want to let it be at that usually started to learn it. Takes a lot of time you know. Take a look, I do not know what it contains exactly, haven't been able to see it you know, and nobody ever asked for it. I'm curious too."

Naruto took a moment too skim over the content. "Heavy stuff, yeah, right. Combining three elements into one. How long did that take someone to learn. I know a bit about Mist's theories on subelements and their test subjects took twenty years plus to combine two elements."

"Oh, most finished after about thirty years. I'm pretty sure that Rock still trains it's Genin to run when they hear 'Storm Release'. We had five of them up the walls when they first attacked and wiped out about two hundred ninja from Rock. Ah, good times. I remember Kenshi calling down what seemed to be a Thunderbird that melted the stones it impacted. Of course the ninja standing on that stones were less fortunate. Is it anything useful or just a jutsu list?"

"Step for step instructions for beginning to train the manipulation, twenty-three techniques, ranking from D to S-Rank. But you won't get to tell that to future customers. I want to try that stuff. Consider it bought." Naruto said grinning like a madman and having recently sorted out the stuff he liberated from Gato. Much cash, and most likely enough of it to bye the whole shop.

"Very well, but don't expect to ever learn it. As I said, the only ones in Whirlpool who had enough time to learn this where those how were injured too bad to keep their body in shape. Now moving onto wind techniques. Having wind affinity myself I have written a few of those scrolls. Now you have to consider. Whirlpool had mainly wind and water techniques. Do you want anything on the mainstream techniques or the special ones? Know this I only consider even showing you the scrolls from my village because I like you and you kind of remind me of an old friend. Mainstream meaning the usual attacks that you can find in similar form all around the Elemental Countries, wind blades, cutting guests and strong storm winds that will push everything in its focus back, that kind. Well and the usual edge sharpening, but I assume you know that one well enough. The whirlpool style of wind techniques involves mainly influencing large bodies of water, modifying air pressure and really high level ones allow someone to push around the clouds and therefore manipulate the weather. Those are chakra-drains like nothing else, but you seem to have large enough reserves as it is. Since you said something about water techniques. Those from Whirlpool have similar focuses as the wind techniques, influencing bodies of water to the point of creating meter high storm waves and influencing the air moisture."

"You know, I've got the feeling I'm gonna spend a lot of money here today."

* * *

Returning back to the clients mansion Naruto thought over his possibilities. He could of course withhold the information about the incoming attack completely. Then again, as much of a burden Sakura would be in a fight it would be better to have backup, just in case. Even if it were two sharingan users. But he also decided to bend the truth a bit and let them assume that he listened into a conversation of two grunts and not supposed leaders.

Naruto circled the house once again. Fifteen minutes to midnight. They had decided that he would carry on with his duty as usual. Unusual was, that another of their group was awake all night and that the remaining two slept in the same room as their client. Not that nobleman complained much after hearing of the attack plan fearing for his life, unlike Sakura. It was planed that Sasuke would wake up the other two shortly before midnight, then Sakura would stay back with the client and the Uchiha and Kakashi would come out. Naturally he had stationed some clones besides the client, it wasn't as if he would risk the mission by trusting her. After all she froze up when faced with the daemon brothers, Zabuza and the oni.

"Ah, there they are." Zabuza commented from the back of his head, though Naruto wasn't sure if he referred to the gathering enemies or his teammates. Keeping himself concealed he sent a clone to meet Kakashi. He was his superior after all.

It wasn't the only clone hidden on the property nor was the fog naturally as thick that evening. The trap has been laid, only leaving two routes open, each covered by either Sasuke or the copy cat. Well that was assuming there were no shinobi in the enemy ranks. Those might detect the subtle use of wind chakra or the transformation techniques in use at various points of the property. Or even the slight chakra residue in the mist. The henge was the easiest to detect. Most ninja after all never trained to detect elemental chakra, because an enemy who attacked with such techniques had to mould regular chakra before converting it into the respective elemental alignment.

And there the attack came. If he counted right it were only forty attackers. The same number of clones stationed within the gardens. Not that he had non within the house proper. Not the crushing overpowering numerical advantage as he used in Wave, but by now he was a lot more confident in his skills. Only a handful of the attackers ever saw their opponent. One was skilled enough to see the clone that attacked him and the two respective up against Sasuke and Kakashi saw their enemy too.

The chuckling of some person filled the evening air. "So the reverted council of the Hidden Leaf did send some babysitters for the great last Uchiha, who is clearly a prodigy by surviving his clans demise. What does this mission consist of? A stuck up egocentric, his pink haired bridge-to be and two jounin bodyguards? How cute." the persons playful voice could be heard across the distance. "Tsubasa, stall the big two while I'm going to play with the baby." the same person ordered, suddenly sounding cold and serious. Naruto now could make out two figures on a nearby rooftop as well. All his clones had dispelled after killing their targets, but it seemed that was not a good idea. Drawing on the nearest source of liquid a dark mist started to cover the scene.

* * *

Sasuke was not in a good mood. First he had to spend his time with that pink haired menace. Kakshi had ordered him to sleep next to her on the floor. Not that he did sleep, the chances of being raped were far to high for that, but he was only able to convince the jounin to take over guard duty an hour before midnight. A good thing he got away from there too, some things that fangirls tried to do to him, the few times they got a hold of him, came to his mind. Then when he finally got into a fight worth it's title, the last time was after all only one enemy, totally unbecoming an Uchiha, he thought that he could finally get his kill count up.

Seeing two of those lowlifes come directly towards him he set one on fire with a modified fireball technique. Not as destructive as the Grand Fireball his clan favoured, but good enough for brainless bandits. The thug went down screaming for his life and Sasuke froze up. Bile rose up and he tried with all his might to push it down. He was an Uchiha after all, killing did not affect an Uchiha. And it wasn't the fist time he saw death, nor would it be the last time. He would not stop until Itachi lay dead to his feet. He should not freeze up from killing, he would not allow his body to do so. Furious he managed to move to the side. The gang member with his rusty katana managed to nick his left arm. That should not be, an Uchiha was better than that after all.

Cursing his weakness he threw a kunai at the man who had stumbled behind him. Sasuke was proud, he still had it in him. Bull's eye. Looking up he saw that the fight was already over. Gang members counting in the dozens lying dead in the grass.

How dare they, stealing his kills. Those were his, he had to prove himself after all. And then they would teach him more powerful techniques that he would use to kill his brother. Slowly. Yeah.

And then this person. How dare he indicate that he was weak. How dare he indicate that there was anything between that weakling and him. And worst of all, how dare he assume that Naruto was a jounin. Nobody had ever insulted him so. Oh, he was so gonna show him.

Then dark mist started to spread. Sasuke glanced around warily. It reminded him too much of the fight back on the bridge for his liking. Someone laughed like a lunatic right in front of him. Out of the mist a big figure emerged, while not at the same height as Kakashi he had clearly more muscles. Dark pants, dark boots, a lighter vest but no shirt and a Leaf forehead protector with a slash through it. That was all he could observe of his opponent before he had to dodge that man's lunge for him. Brass knuckles glinting in his hands.

"You know, " his unnamed opponent said "It was you Uchiha that forced me to become a missing-nin and now I'm gonna repay that. Say bye to your precious eyes." He attacked again. Sasuke had meanwhile activated his sharingan and managed to dodge again. And dodging was all he could do against his faster opponent that then started to speak.

"Ah it has been a while since I had seen this eyes." Left hook. "You want to hear the story?" A kick into the stomach. "While I was still a young little Leaf ninja I developed my own fighting style." Body Flicker and a straight hit to the back of the head. "Then my Uchiha teammate went and had it marked as a fighting style brought to the village by your clan." A punch to the ribcage. "And then he went and accused me of of stealing his clans property." Body Flicker and a right hook. "The clan head called for amends to his clan." A fast kick to the hip. "And then we went onto another mission." He suddenly stopped and grinned. "You want to know what happened next?"

Sasuke ignored him and tried to attack himself, only to be backhanded against the face. "Dosed him with sedative and cut his eyes out. Then I left." The missing-nin stated laughing like mad. "Heard he bled out. You know, I always wanted to test if an Uchiha really dies from having his eyes cut out or if he was only killed by the clan later for weakness."

He advanced at Sasuke "And now I've got the chance to." He pressed a kunai deep into Sasuke's skin directly next to his eye. "This ain't gonna hurt a bit."

* * *

Sensing the enemy, Tsubasa, coming for him Naruto hoped that Kakashi would go and help Sasuke. Because he would have his hands full with this opponent.

The enemy did not seemed to be fazed the slightest by the mist, if his movements were any indication. Naruto cursed silently. Of course he had known that there were people out there that could counter just about anything, but he did not expect to meet one so soon. Sure, he was no slouch in a fight, since Wave at least, but he since then preferred to attack unexpected, from behind, the enemy unaware of his location until he was already dead. Of course against an experienced enemy like this he would never get into the perfect striking position, but then again he had hoped to disorientate the enemy at last to get an advantage.

"Tell me, how can you move so well without any visibility?" he asked, pulling one of Zabuza's little tricks to mask his position by projecting his voice evenly throughout the mist.

"Hidden Mist Technique? I thought those dampening of the sounds was familiar. I never needed visibility, being born blind, but a prodigy of my clan. "

So he uses sound of some kind Naruto deducted, while using a variation of the water walking exercise not to disturb the grass while moving. He then created some clones, hoping to confuse his enemy and had them throw senbon at him.

"Lightning Style: Static Shock" he heard a whisper and then received the memory of one clone. It was hit by what seemed to be mist-conducted lightning. Naruto cursed inwardly and let the mist fade. While scholars always preached that every element had exactly one weakness, and that of water is earth, sometimes those theories were exactly that, theories, nice on paper but not really useful on the battlefield. Naruto's clone had just learned that the hard way.

For the first time getting a good view of his opponent Naruto decided what to make of him. While he seemed somewhat frail and small one could see from his worn equipment that either he had a lot of experience or it was a heirloom. A dark battle armour as of old was his most distinguishing feature. 'Even the one old man Hokage wears looks modern in comparison.' he thought, but the weirdest part was that strange construct that was holstered onto the left shoulder pad of the armour.

His clones continued to to use senbon, but Tsubasa dodged them all, most of them with a minimum of movement.

Seemingly waiting for some signal the enemy burst into movement and pulled out two short thin blade. The clone that was targeted pulled out his own ninjato and defended himself, but the enemy was clearly more skilled and outsmarted the clone after a few short exchanges of blows.

"What is that, a bat? Never heard of ninja using bats before." Naruto asked his opponent already going through a string of hand seals.

"Ah, good you figured it out. Now I ain't surprised that you have never heard of it, since my clan is one of the few that never joined a hidden village as well as our rather small number. Fly my friend."

It seemed as if the bat user was suddenly much more aware of his surroundings than before. But then again he likely used a similar orientation method as bats and therefore two sources of sound provided him with a better idea of the terrain than one.

The clone completed a technique and calmly called out "Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death" while the original sent one of his own. Silently. It seemed as if the enemy was capable of evading the water attack by jumping over but was hit by a single cutting arc of wind high up in the air into the back. It wasn't nearly enough to wound him badly, but a cut was a cut and on the long run it would tire his opponent faster.

Tsubasa nodded at Naruto as if acknowledging his hit while going through hand seals and the calling out "Lightning Release: Lightning Ball" creating a ball of sparkling electricity that than shot towards Naruto's last remaining clone.

The original scowled, but then nodded at his enemy, preparing his next move. He really could have foregone the memory of being fried by lightning.

Creating another group of clones with barely a thought one of them went into close combat while the others threw senbon. It was clear to Naruto that this opponent was above him in skill and therefore he reverted to a tactic he used before. He replaced himself with one of his clones that had ducked himself into some bushes on a direct line between the original and the opponent and concealed himself to the best of his ability. That including careful manipulation of the air around him, creating a slightly less dense layer of air between him and the world around, that would be less useful to carry sound. Naruto only feared, that it would show up with his enemy's bat as something akin of a black void.

Destroying clone after clone his enemy called out: "You clearly are no Jounin, that idiot that hates the Uchiha must have overestimated you. But I can accredit you rock solid chunin skill."

"Thanks, " the next clone answered amused "I've been Genin for nearly five months now."

"If that is true then the Leaf deserves it reputation as the strongest village."

Naruto's clone looked towards where the other enemy fought: "Thanks again, but if your partner is anything like you in skill the Uchiha is either dead or had to have his ass saved by our lazy ass Jounin-sensei."

The shinobi sprinted forwards, struck the clone with his short blade and then seemed surprised that it blew into smoke. But not surprised enough not to intercept the strike Naruto delivered from behind. Lightning fast Tsubasa whipped around and used his second dagger to stab at the blonde. Surprising his enemy Naruto caught the blade with his bare hand, clearly piercing through, to avoid a lethal blow.

"Not only good at hiding but got guts as well, I like you kid." the lightning user commented before whistling in the dead-lock. The bat companion rapidly approached Naruto from behind before he evaded with a seal less replacement. Now his enemy was caught by surprise and received a slash down his left arm.

The fight went on for a time, neither scoring a decisive hit, but his enemy already weakened enough that Naruto was able to keep up. The only problem on his part was that the bat had taken to attacking him at random times, which he more than once only escaped using the replacement technique.

Suddenly a sharp pain coursed through Naruto "Got you." his enemy declared.

"Not over yet." Naruto commented driving his own blade deeper into his enemy's heart. While the stab into the kidney was certainly painful, the jinchuuriki was sure he would recover and his enemy die.

Pulling the blade out his enemy fell backwards. Glancing upwards to the blonde, even if he couldn't see him, he asked: "Don't give up because that injury. And tell me your name. I want to be able to tell those down in hell the name of the one who sent me there."

"Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto said shortly, before sitting down himself, circulating more chakra towards his gravest wound.

"An Uzumaki? Should have known that there are still some of those around." Tsubasa said, before his eyes lost their spark. He was dead.

Naruto sat against the for another full five minutes, feeling weak from blood loss, even if the feeling slowly ceased. But it wasn't purely physical. This was probably the first time that he was this close to death. Sure, there were a few incidents that left him in hospital for a while in the past, but this was different. Here he had pitted his own skill against that of another and only came out victorious by a small margin. The fight could have gone into the other direction at any time. He did not remember ever feeling so mortal, yet so alive. Not when he activated his bloodline to 'collect' Haku and Zabuza, not when Mizuki tried to kill him, not when he ran from those few drunks that thought he would make a good scapegoat. And it drove home another point: no matter his bloodline, no matter how much he trained, there will always be someone stronger, someone that was able to kill you.

Sealing his enemy into a scroll, after all a body can tell you a lot about him, he slowly walked over to where Sasuke fought. He had not heard the sound of battle there for several minutes. Not that it meant anything, after all his own fight had been quiet silent as well, mainly because his opponent relied on sound to track him.

* * *

Sasuke screamed as hot, searing pain shot through him. He was cut from a point right beside his left eye straight through his eyebrow halfway up his forehead. Kakashi said, eyeing the Leaf missing-nin while holding his wrist: "You know, there are people that would never stop pestering me if something happened to those eyes. Come to think of it, the boy attached to those too, but only to a lesser degree."

Throwing the enemy against a tree by the arm he held him at Kakashi pulled out a kunai. Then he proceeded to lift his forehead protector from his sharingan eye. His opponent sneered: "Another one out to stealing my techniques? As if it isn't enough that Shisui brought my style to fame."

Charging at Kakashi he body flickered away the last moment before he was hit by a kunai and reappeared behind Sasuke. He then stabbed the Genin right below the ribcage. "Bleed out, thief." he commented.

Engaging Kakashi in a high level taijutsu fight both never were aware of a girl fanatical screaming "Sasuke" and trying to help him with basic first aid learned at the academy. Theory of course, practical application was overrated after all. Nor did they notice the badly wounded boy trying to get up and rejoin the battle, that was his fight after all.

The fight was over fast, even if he had slacked off on what he was in his prime, Kakashi never got listed as bordering S-Rank in the bingo books for nothing, but then again most people make mistakes. Seeing himself outclassed the enemy swore to return and fled.

Kakashi went back to reading.

* * *

This was the scene Naruto came to when he returned from his own fight. Sakura hysterical trying to help the Uchiha, even if there was nothing she could do at the moment, Sasuke trying to get away from the pink haired girl's 'tender' care and Kakashi reading his book lost in his own world.

"Hey, " he greeted looking around closely "Where's the enemy?"

"Cyclops-sensei left him to run away." Sasuke answered clearly annoyed by the whole thing.

"You should have killed him, now he will come back later." Naruto accused their supposed teacher.

"Not your problem, now return to guard duty, and you two go to bed." Kakashi answered and himself entered the house.

Naruto did not return to his sweeps all night, but let clones do those. He himself focused his chakra into all those small and bigger cuts littering all over his body, manly his arms. Their stings were a clear reminder that he had to work harder to improve.

Some hours later the sun started to rise Naruto took a good look at the property and cursed. The gang member's bodies were devoid of blood. Instead a fine red layer covered the whole garden. Naruto cursed more violently and louder. That had to be the reason why the mist last night seemed to be so sluggish to control and darker in colour than normal. The guards down in the garden were looking up curiously not yet having made the connection between the shinobi fighting, the bloodless corpse and the red colour dominant in the garden.

* * *

A decisively slower Naruto made his way through the small streets of the busy port city. He had to go back to Takehiko's shop, because the old man had promised that he would properly seal his whole buy.

He entered the shop and after greeting the shopkeeper he asked a questing that was on his mind the whole morning: "Have you ever seen someone using water techniques with blood?"

"It's rare, but if you've got no other source, sure, happens sometimes. But never forget the psychological aspect, I've seen hardened veterans running when someone pulled that trick."

"That's good to know." He simply said.

"You know brat" Takehiko then said after a short pause "I probably told you this yesterday, but you remind me a hell lot of an old friend and comrade from back in Whirlpool. I thought about it the whole night and decided to let you take a shot."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto wanted to know.

"No questions, just smear some blood on here." the old man insisted.

Naruto carefully inspected 'here'. It was a storage seal the, blood locked variation, but with a few strange twists he never saw before. "This ain't some seal that opens by draining someone's complete life-force, is it?" Naruto asked warily.

"Nah, wouldn't do to kill you, now would it?" Takehiko answered.

Still unsure Naruto decided to give it a try, after all what could go wrong. Wiping the blood across the seal it burst into a puff of smoke and revealed another scroll, this one of the big variation, nearly a meter in width and half that in diameter.

"Thought so." the old man commented "What's your surname kid? No, no, don't answer that, it's Uzumaki, isn't it?"

Naruto took a step back "How did you know?" he growled out.

"Well, as you can see that's a blood seal, but a special one. It's modified that it will open for any member by blood of any of the five clans of Whirlpool. I thought it over, your resemblance in personality to my old friend Kenshi Uzumaki, that is. You know, the one who could call a thunderbird from the sky? You said you're from Hidden Leaf, so I assume your Kushina's. She was after all our diplomatic liaison there. But then again I always assumed she died during our village's destruction, but I can be wrong. Now, this scroll you unsealed is one of the most important things of old Whirlpool village. You know, there was only one summoning contract in the village, that of the crane, there might have been some other birds included as well, but those made the majority. Now every clan head of the five clans had signed the contract to be able to keep in touch and to promote unity in the village. I'll offer you to sign this. You know, Kenshi would have been clan head, if he hadn't stepped down after that Rain shinobi mangled his leg badly. Would place you somewhere fifth or sixth in the line of succession, but I doubt there is anyone of those still alive. The only active summoner at the moment is me, so you would have the opportunity to easily exchange messages with me. Tell you stories about who I assume is your granddad and mum, you know? On the other hand the cranes are skilled spy's and cunning fighters, even if they lack the raw power that the legendary three from Leaf possess. So, wanna give it a try?"

Naruto thought it over. Summoning contracts were rare and few people ever offered someone not immediate family or students a chance to sign. But then again if what Takehiko said was true his was something akin family. It would be nice to hold something and be able to say: 'My grandfather used that too'. And maybe the summons even knew some of his family personally. That did it, Naruto had decided and signed in blood as indicated.

"Now all you need is a lot of practice, it might take you a while before you can summon the stronger ones. I hope I will hear from you soon. Here is what you purchased, and out with you, have a good day and come visit."

Naruto just did not understand the man.

* * *

After several days of straining journey back, as Sasuke could not travel at all and had to be carried. Not that he enjoyed it. After returning to the village and dropping yet another teammate off at the hospital before going to the debriefing.

"You chose this mission on purpose, didn't you?" Naruto asked the Hokage after his teammates left – Kakashi where ever he went during free time and Sakura to the hospital.

The old man nodded gravely and answered: "Yes, there were rumours that that particular gang had associated with shinobi in the past, but nothing ever came out of our investigations. I assumed you will write another mission report?" he asked, sounding a bit amused.

Naruto tilted his head: "That will have to wait. An opportunity has presented itself to me, one that may never come again, but would let me accomplish something important. I'll need ten days off and would leave just before the gates close."

Sarutobi looked serious, interpreting Naruto's glance correct and saying: "I trust the ANBU in here with my life. You can talk freely. As for days off, I'll take your team off duty for two weeks because of the Uchiha's injuries, that OK with you?" All that while activating the sound barrier.

Naruto looked grave and said: "I'll be back in an hour, telling you the details, I'll have to do some last minute research. The complete bingo book – section Mist would be useful. Just that you know, if I ain't back in two weeks declare me a missing-nin to avoid any political backslash."

Tossing his forehead protector to the stunted Hokage he left the office.

* * *

AN: Oh yes. Naruto starts to develop a 'deal with the problem completely and it won't come back later and bite you in the ass'. Kinda like Konoha vs. the Uchiha clan.

While it was a close fight for Naruto, Tsubasa was likely only chunin level in skill, but he is able to counter at least a few of Naruto's skills quiet nicely.

Tell me if you know a good source of Japanese Names with the meaning of the names, I don't want to pick just any out on random, my skills with Japanese are limited to a few words and I somehow feel uncomfortable with using western names, don't ask me why.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sarutobi was worried. The plan Naruto had outlined might very well work, but usually operations like this were assigned to ANBU and labelled S-Rank for a reason. Certainly not a Genin, let alone a rookie. But it was just that, it wasn't a mission and all he could do would be deny Naruto the chance to leave the village. He might do it even then, the kid was quite good after all. As it was he was the only one with the requirements to pull it off and come out save and sound. A noteworthy side effect the whole operation would be invaluable intelligence for the village.

"So let me recap this. You will assume the identity of this hunter you saw killed the last mission. He is a good target to replace because he is known as a loner and had lost his tongue to the fourth Mizukage. Then you will infiltrate Hidden Mist with the sole purpose to pull of a certain ritual, that would bind Zabuza's sword to you. All while pretending to be a hunter just coming back from a mission delayed, resting a few hours and then heading out for the next mission?"

"That was the plan. It helps that Zabuza knew Tetsuya quite well before he left. You also have to take into account that Tetsuya was marked a missing-nin as well for a time and that his target was one of the supporters of Yagura. Might be why he was ranked so low, his skill was clearly higher. That indicates that there was a change in leadership. Could mean it is the best possible time to infiltrate, or the worst of all. But I have to try or I might not get another shot in my lifetime. Or at least non that would not cause war."

Sarutobi sighted. He knew there were few things he could do to stop Naruto. And if he succeeded it would bring the village an advantage too. He closed his eyes. "OK, I'll let you go. But be careful, even my contacts in the area have been silent for some time. That either means someone is blocking communication or they are dead. If you could do me a favour? Bring this to an acquaintance of mine. Not a contact mind you, but someone I trust not to rat you out. Just to confirm if they are still alive. If you make it back this will be marked as an S-Ranked mission, if you fail nobody in the village knew about this. Anything else?"

"Yes. These storage scroll contain what I have deemed too unsafe to leave in my apartment. Mainly technique scrolls and weapons. Keep them for me? If I don't make it back you can give them to Tenten and tell my friends to see her if they are interested in those. I trust her to do the right thing, unlike Lee who would shout it out all over the village or Shika, who would just deem everything too troublesome and ignore it. Well there is Iruka... But back on track. If I get caught I will try to weasel my way out, but for that I must cut my ties to the Leaf village. Tell everyone who will hear it that I had a big argument with a shinobi council member and a family member of an civilian representative. I'll try to sent you a note if something goes awry." answered the blonde, thinking about a certain Uchiha and Haruno.

"Good luck" Sarutobi wished and let the seals that ensured privacy fade.

* * *

It's been a three day trip since leaving Leaf. Three days of travel and memorising habits, information, skills and acquaintances of the hunter-nin codename 'Ghost' or 'Ya-chan' according to Zabuza. And now he had arrived. Taking a ferry towards the central islands of Water Country he afterwards took one of the hidden small boats that operatives usually used to get to Niijima island, where the Village Hidden in the Mist was located. After carefully tying down the boat, so that the next one who needed it would have no problems Naruto took a well worn path, that was yet so hidden that you had to know where to look. Without Zabuza's help he would have never found it. According to the swordsman it was also the most usual reason for delays with rookie ANBU and hunter-nin in Mist. They simply didn't find the trail.

A nervous blonde approached the hidden entrance of the village wall used by those who don't want to appear on the official visitors list at the main gate. Handing the guard the mission scroll Naruto answered the unasked question with one of the hand signs unique to Tetsuya, that he had problems finding the target. To Naruto's eternal relief the guard nodded and let him in. Behind the safety of a mask Naruto marvelled at the sight of the village. It was so unlike Leaf. Where his home town was widespread with compared to this small two to four story houses and permeated by plants everywhere, this mainly consisted of channels of water with modern looking round skyscrapers on the islands. The Kage's tower stood towering above every other building right in front of a steep mountain range. There were a few smaller residential buildings and very few what appeared to be clan compounds. Few clans seemed to have managed to bring their material possessions through the war, if they even survived.

Quickly making his way to a old residential sector with nondescript small houses, where Zabuza claimed the headquarters of the hunter-nin was to be found, Naruto tried to find out what was talk within the 'village'. More like city, like the other so called Hidden Villages. After all villagers gossiped a lot, and you just had to listen in. Still, he felt the thrill, while his hair and eye colour matched the man he impersonated it would only take one person to see behind the mask to expose him. Or force him to take the mask off... The possibilities were endless on how to get caught as a spy. Thank god there was no Byakugan in Mist.

Arriving at the unassuming building Naruto enters. Making his way to a very specific office he enters without knocking, all in character with Tetsuya. "Ah, your back. Took you long enough. How did it go?" asked a middle aged man, Headband proudly displayed on his head, one eye covered by some black construct that was not quite an eye patch, talisman dangling from his ears and his hair up in a spike.

"Ao" supplied Zabuza. "Though I have no idea what happened to his eye. Also be thankful that he is very relaxed, he is a very skilled sensor who would have instantly detect the difference in chakra." Naruto signalled with Tetsuya's unique sign language that the target was not at the expected location. He also added that he was stronger than expected.

"No matter, you've got the head, otherwise you would not have shown up here." Nodding Naruto handed him the scroll.

"Good, now since you are here, some of the intruder detection seals on the island have gone haywire again, can you fix that later today?" Not knowing anything about such seals Naruto started to sweat. 'Where?' he signalled, while inwardly panicking. If they had some sort of detection then they had to have some marking on the normal habitants to find the intruders. He just hoped that it was a seal somewhere on the clothes otherwise he would be in big trouble. He was also surprised to be asked to take a look on them, but then again Tetsuya had been known to be decent with seals.

"Got five contacts at the coast. Must be again some salt on those too close to the sea. Waterproofing does not seem to help. You can find the error in Sector F-5." The Leaf shinobi signalled that he would look into it, but he had to take care of something first.

Ao seemed to know better than ask Tetsuya where he was going and just thanked Naruto and sent him on his way. The blond on the other hand had to hold back an sigh in relive. It would not do to appear suspicious. And then again Ao handled it as if such an occurrence was daily, or at least often enough.

Walking through the hunter headquarters on Zabuza's instruction, wondering why they had not changed location because of their warring factions and numerous missing-nin, Naruto for a short moment thought over entering the technique archives, but then dismissed the thought. Tetsuya never was someone for nin- or genjutsu. Sure the man knew the stuff he needed, was deadly with senbon and decent with a sword, not to talk about his skills with seals, making him solid jounin, but never was considered one of the elite. So it might rise some alarm if he was found studying scrolls in the hunter HQ, with his mask on, where most who spent more time here took off.

Luckily he was known to spend lots of times at Naruto's intended target. Some even considered him too religious for a serious ninja. Then again, many of Mist's higher ranks were known to offer prayers at the shrine only referred to as 'The sanctuary' from time to time.

Walking a winding path up into the mountain range behind the village, Naruto thought back onto Zabuza's explanation.

----Flashback----

Naruto was once again in his mind talking to Zabuza and Haku. "You know brat," Zabuza started after an extended period of silence. "That blade I carried is not just any blade. You see, long before the Village in the Hidden Mist was founded, heck maybe even before the era of the warring clans, it's not easy to find information on the subject, thou I also never bothered, the first Seven Swordsman received their swords. And not just from anyone, but from one of the kami, Hachiman. While those back then were samurai over the generations the blades came into shinobi hands. First they were split upon several clans, but since those clans kept up the shrine where the swords were first granted they formed bonds. This eventually led to the founding of the Village Hidden in the Mist, where the shrine is located. This place, known as the 'Sanctuary' to inhabitants from Mist, is where you will have to go sooner or later to be judged by Hachiman if you are worthy to carry his blade in this world. Then again, that's a different experience for every single one judged there. Sometimes when one of the seven returned to the inner shrine, that is only accessible to those who carry one of the seven blades, we find one of the swords but no wielder there, so we assume it can go wrong. Then again the only thing Hachiman wanted from me was a promise to protect those in my heart. While not instantly struck down I died the same day I failed that. Some might say it was random, some might say a kami's involvement. As I said it is different for everyone. I remember Kisame coming back out. I think he still can't hear jokes referring to sushi or sharkskin as different he looked afterwards." Zabuza took his time and seemed lost in old memories.

Naruto just waited saying nothing. Sure, the idea of meeting a god seemed ridiculous, then again some of those seven blades seemed not from this earth. And didn't he meet the Shinigami at young age? And Kyuubi, whatever he was?

"Anyway you have to go there, offer your prayer and let you be judged. At the first opportunity. And seeing as Mist is rather isolated at the moment and letting a Leaf shinobi inside of their walls in the near future seems unlikely we will have to take some risks. Once the blade is bound to you, or is it the other way around, it will be easier for you to wield it and nobody will be able to steal it."

"So you want me to infiltrate a major shinobi village? Most likely one on extreme alert due to the bloodline war? Not a good idea in my mind. Is it really worth the risk?" Naruto asked sceptical.

"You do know that all seven swords are sentient? Some more than others, but that's how it is. And if you don't bind it as soon as possible then it will search for someone else. And I would prefer it if my blade stayed with someone I choose as opposed as someone say Yagura choose."

"Don't see your point. Making it easier to use and keeping it out of someone else's hands don't seem like enough motivation."

"Well there are other benefits, but they are inconsistent as well. Kisame gained the ability to draw on the chakra Samehade absorbs, well and his grills, and blue skin, but don't mention that to him. Raiga's affinity for lightning shot up by an extreme level. Before he used more water techniques due to the fact that his water and lightning affinities were nearly the same level, but afterwards I don't think I ever saw him using water techniques again. Me, well I think I draw a blank. More strength and faster clotting of bleeding wounds. Not that useful, but hey I did get pretty strong anyway. No telling what you would get out of this, but you should try."

----End----

Entering the plain outer shrine Naruto took a look around. The only thing that caught the eye was a large basin of water at the side where the wall was made up by natural rock of the mountainside. Moving easily he knelt down besides the water and crossed the hands in a fashion Zabuza often saw Tetsuya doing while praying. The other present shinobi shot him a curios glance but let it slide.

On the outside Naruto was dead calm, but on the inside he was extremely nervous. Could that shinobi, an ordinary jounin from the look, have seen through his disuse? Had Tetsuya changed some of his habits during Zabuza's absence? Then again it could be that the shinobi did not know the hunter at all and was just curios why he did not take of his mask in the shrine.

Finally the other one left. Zabuza has started to get jittery in his head, while Haku tried to calm him down. Naruto was thankful for the mask. Otherwise one would most likely had asked about the various emotions playing across his face. Even if Naruto tried to train himself not to show those. He was supposed to be an serious shinobi after all. Carefully unsealing his Head Cutter and nicking his finger with it to let blood drop into the water Naruto waited. If anyone found him now he would be in deep trouble, no matter what happened.

A few moments later the water parted and revealed a staircase leading down. Naruto was sure that that stairs were not visible in the crystal clear water of the basin before. Anyway, that was supposed a place where a god dropped by on occasion. Wouldn't do not hiding it properly.

Following down the extremely long stairs Naruto found himself in front of another basin, even bigger than that one above, in what seemed to be an natural cave. He was pretty sure that he was below sea level down here. Eight pillars were dispersed evenly around the basin and the stairs ended where the ninth would have been located. An unnatural light coming from the water illuminated the whole cave and allowed him to see different shaped indentions on the pillars.

Slowly moving towards the pillar he knew would be his, Zabuza commented on the back of his head: "You know the words brat, your on your own now." While standing in front of the pillar the blonde had the strange feeling that he was mustered from behind just as much as he was mustering the pillar.

Slowly drawing the cutting edge over his hand again, drawing more blood than before Naruto hesitated for a second. Then he slid the blade deep into the necessary position in the pillar. Turning around the blond looked over the water. Having taken of the mask he could see his own face looking back. He dropped some blood into the basin and spoke clearly: "Hachiman, ruler of war and protector, a warrior kneels before you, offering sacrifice, searching judgement." And then he blacked out.

* * *

Waking up again Naruto looked around warily. He did not recognise his surroundings, but they did not seem anything special. Besides the fact that there were field as far as he could see into any direction. Rice grew in most of those. Another thing that quickly drew his attention was that Zabuza and Haku stood on his either side, but seemed frozen still. The same could be said for a very still nine tailed fox standing behind him. Actually one could argue he stood over him since the shadow of the fox's head fell where he was standing.

"You're an interesting young man." a voice behind him suddenly said, while Naruto was still inspecting the Kyuubi. Spinning around the blond came to face with a men he had not noticed before. In fact the shinobi was sure that the man was not there just a moment before. He had short greying hair and a grey beard and a friendly round face. He was dressed in what appeared as a monks robe and had a dove sitting on his shoulder. What seemed to clash with this image was the long katana strapped to his hip.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked the man, not trusting him.

"I never saw someone with an gift that powerful of another kami come here. But then I guess it is a first time for everything. It is however very interesting that you brought Zabuza with you. Now then, be ready to be judged." the man said, and since he claimed to be a kami Naruto assumed that it was Hachiman.

The god drew his sword and looked at Naruto expectantly. Slowly he drew out his ninjato. "This is even more interesting, until now everyone tested fought with the blade he sought to bond with. Care to explain?"

"You know, while I am halfway decent with this blade, fighting with Head Cutter would be more like being wielded by the sword than wielding the sword. It's too heavy to be used very efficient by me at the moment."

The kami chuckled: "Good observation." And then started to attack merciless. After only a few second Naruto had small cuts lingering on both arms and legs as well as his left shoulder all the way down his back. And he was very sure that the god was holding back.

It hurt like hell, but Naruto endured, and tried to block the attacks more efficient, but to no avail. While Naruto might be really strong for a Genin and even was able to take on some Chunin this was clearly out of his league. He thought that that must be how it would feel to fight a Kage. On the other hand that was a kami dedicated to war, he might even be stronger than a Kage, but then he would be holding back severely.

Naruto cursed. Loud. And long. This was his first time in a long time that he fought without the help of Haku and Zabuza and he might as well lose. His opponent was just too overwhelming strong. Even the help of those two would not do him any good. He was so outclassed in strength, speed and skill that it wasn't even funny. The blond was sure that he was struggling for his life here, like a fish who was thrown onto dry ground. And then, just a second ago Hachiman severed some tendons on his left arm that was now dead weight.

"Tell me why do you struggle so much?" asked the kami suddenly.

"To protect those precious to me." Naruto answered fast. Maybe too fast.

"Really? That did sound somewhat forced. Tell me, why do you fight?" asked Hachiman again driving his katana through Naruto's heart. The blond only coughed up blood, unable to answer with those injuries.

* * *

Back in the Leaf village Sarutobi just had a brilliant thought. Well not the old monkey summoner himself but a clone of his. Having time of from paperwork, as he sent it to the desk of others instead of working through it himself, he could use his head for some other things after all. And there it was, this thought of pure genius. A way how he might just get rid of those elders on the council. Sure, they will still be influencing the civilians, but even those had their own agenda. No the three elder advisor had long past overstept their limits and now they were going to pay. A vicious smirk formed on the clone's face. After all the paperwork for the day was sorted and only needed to be signed later.

Leafing through various law books he had stumbled upon a very interesting decree: 'A shinobi on active duty who had not partaken on a mission the last six months has to prove before a board of chosen shinobi of higher or equal rank that they are still fit for duty. If not going onto mission had weakened the village an investigation on the motive of treason has to be conducted. If the shinobi is considered unfit for duty he has to retire and can reapply for his shinobi licence after three months.'

Yes that would do nicely, after all the position was called an elder advisor because of the fact, that those three seats were taken up by the three oldest shinobi on active duty. Excluding the Hokage. The clone proceeded to draw up the paperwork for the original to sign crackling madly. He wouldn't dispel himself today, he wanted to see his creators face reading that particular paper.

* * *

Kyuubi was furious. He was knocked out for some time, he had no idea how long, and now the weakling humans body that was his his host was breaking down. That would mean that the seal would force his soul to die with that of his container. That was no option. Starting to trash in his cage the giant fox tried to draw his prison to him. Did he not see the condition he was in. A hole through the heart. Nothing that the bloodline of his could not fix, but not with the amount of chakra the human had available. If only he could send him chakra, somehow his host was blocked of from doing so. The fox truly did not want to die.

His host slowly approached the fox. Something was off, but Kyuubi paid no mind but yelled out: "Take my chakra, let me help you. I don't want to die, and we will die if you don't let me help you. And then I will haunt you in all eternity."

"You are just trying to take over again, like back on the bridge." The boy answered calmly. The Kyuubi battered against the bars of his cage with renewed vigour. Apparently his container was even more dense than he thought when they last met. Did he not see that they were dying?

"You are dying, now let me lend you chakra to heal your wound!" The human slowly backed away.

"No, you are just trying to hurt me I know it."

"I assure you, I ain't planing anything, I just want to live."

"Then make an oath. It will be enforced by the kami themselves if you break it." Kyuubi paused. How did his container know of such a thing? But then again there were more important concerns now.

"I swear I won't."

"Proper wording." Was the blonds only replay. Kyuubi cursed mentally. He had to do it, he had no choice. After all dying was not an option.

"I, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, messenger of Inari, guardian spirit, swear onto my existence not to intentional harm my container in any way." His container made a go on motion and the fox added reluctantly. "And to assist him on his path." The blond smiled.

"I really think that Inari saw this coming, you know. I never understood why he would let you run loose for so long, but now I might have seen the reason." the human changed and in his place stood Hachiman who slowly faded from the sewer.

* * *

Naruto regained consciousness. Immediately he heard something big crashing into something solid. "There you are. Let me lend you chakra to heal your wounds." A familiar voice all but commanded.

Naruto looked around warily. "Kyuubi?" he asked "What is going on?"

The fox looked angry: "You are dying idiot. Now let me lend you chakra, because I have no intention of dying just now."

Remembering his fight against that kami and the wound he received Naruto nodded and immediately red chakra poured out of the cage and flew out of the chamber in great quantity.

"What the hell is going on here anyway?" Naruto asked but faded again. He mused that the fox might have something to do with it but let it go.

* * *

Surrounded by a red aura of chakra Naruto saw himself face to face with Hachiman once again. The kami seemed to be very serious about something. Far more serious than before anyway.

"You have a long path before you kid. And a lot to learn. I have arranged that you will have some more help in the future. I also will have to let you bond with my blade. I can't afford to let you die and that is the only way to get out of here alive. Now normally I would keep you here until you find your reason to grow stronger or someone takes the sword from here, but I can't do this. The path's of fate would change in a way not even the kami can predict. And it might cost us our lives too. But I will not grant you a blessing, and seeing as you already have the Shinigami's it wouldn't matter. The only thing that the bond will help you with is that your sword will be no longer resisting you. That means you will be able to summon it now, it will feel lighter and be unbreakable once more. Not that that blade would break easily otherwise, but it might. Now go onto your way."

Naruto was left with much to think about. If Hachiman was so insistent that he was not fighting to protect those precious to him, then why did he get stronger? And what did his death have to do with fate's paths? He could understand that he would have a long way to go, but then again why would a kami be interested in that.

* * *

Standing once more in front of the basin that was the centre of the shrine Naruto decided that he had to get going. After all he wanted to be out of the village before someone saw through his disguise. And there was the matter of that message he had to pass on from the Hokage.

Slowly pulling Head Cutter out of the pillar he moved to leave but froze. There were footsteps approaching. Naruto cursed mentally. He had left the mask right besides the stairs. It just hadn't felt right to wear one in the heart of the shrine.

Footsteps came closer. There was no way he would make it to the mask and put it on. And then he would have to explain how Tetsuya come into possession of that specific blade, or any of the seven for the matter. He did not know how the situation was with five of them, for the matter they all could be dead right now. Kisame Hoshigaki was most likely still out there, being one of the few who were on a level of their own and were considered S-Class. Then again if your weapon eats your enemies chakra and lets you absorb it, most everyone would be hard pressed to win.

He himself held the Decapitating Carving Knife so there were five others, all most likely loyal to the Mist. Well, at least three other swords were wielded by shinobi listed as missing-nin for a time, though only one of those ever left Water Country. The other two stayed all the time and fought in the bloodline wars. And even the one who left the country had according to various sources disappeared. Just like many other missing-nin from Mist.

Hearing that the steps had nearly reached the end of the stairs Naruto decided that he would not go down without a fight and held the long and unwieldy blade up in a ready stance. A shadow appeared at the end of the stairs.

"Whoa, don't go around pointing such big blades on people. Someone could get hurt. Not to mention that fighting down here is frowned upon." said the newcomer, the last sentence as if in an afterthought.

"Didn't keep Zabuza or Kisame from it." Naruto answered with a shrug.

The newcomer blinked. He had green hair and grey eyes, wore a long dark blue coat and a big sword and a large bag on his back. Staring openly upon Naruto he said: "You know, I don't think I saw you here before. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever saw you here. There are close to two thousand shinobi in the village, but I think I would have at least seen someone with the potential for the Seven before. Who are you?"

"Some secrets are better kept to oneself."

"Ah come on, my name is Raiga Kurosuki, now tell me yours, it's not going to be your funeral."

Staring at him for a few moments Naruto came to a decision. "Uzumaki my name, I'm Zabuza-sama's successor, if you haven't yet guessed by the blade."

Raiga carefully observed the blonde and then said: "I take it that you are not from this village, otherwise you would have told me your full name. Also Zabuza died far from here the same day we finally freed this village of the rule of that tyrant Yagura. There will be a lot of shinobi objecting a foreign as a Swordsman, but those are the rules. And the rules of the Swordsman have been around longer than the Hidden Mist. I will meditate down here for a few hours, but afterwards I will be forced to tell someone that there was some stranger lurking around the shrine. Until we meet again, brother."

Naruto nodded, sealed the sword into a scroll once more and then said: "If you ever need my help, brother, search me where the fire in people's heart's burns bright."

Then he left.

* * *

Sasuke sat on the hospital bed and looked into a mirror. The wound on his abdomen was not that bad, sure it hurt a lot and he lost a lot of blood, but his attacker missed every organ so it was just a flesh wound that would heal fully soon enough. The wound on his face though, it would leave a scar. He traced it again. From right above his left cheekbone up to his forehead. Surely those stalkers of his would swoon over how manly he looked with a scar. He himself saw it as a sign of weakness. Nobody should be able to come even near of an Uchiha's eye. Even less with himself, he had that man to kill after all.

Then again, he wasn't even allowed to train. He had to train. Or at least learn how to keep those harpies called fangirls away. Bad enough that that so called 'teammate' of his came here everyday, but recently a whole pack of others had followed her.

Thinking about it he hadn't seen the two other males on his team since coming back to the village. He thought it over. Well Kakashi was most likely drawn in for some other duty until the team was ready for missions again. He was a jounin after all.

But it was surprising that Naruto hadn't turned up yet. He would have thought that he would come storming in shouting about how he was better that Sasuke. The Uchiha shook his head. The blonde had calmed down some after all. Well not that it mattered, he was still a looser.

Turning his thoughts back to the scar on his face Sasuke continued to brood.

* * *

Naruto scowled behind his mask. He was now walking through the merchants district for the third time, with appropriate pause of course, wouldn't do to be found out as being unfamiliar with the village layout, and still couldn't find the small weapon shop the Hokage had talked about. It was somehow maddening.

Turning into a small side alley Naruto suppresses the urge to curse. Of course the shop was right of the main street in the merchant district if it borders to it, with only the entrance in a side alley. Slowly Naruto enters. Looking around the small room is empty, only a counter and a few weapons behind it, nothing else.

An old man from coming from the back asks unkindly: "What do you want? You know I only forge on demand and only for those who have been sent here by those I trust. After all I wouldn't want those weapons to fall in the wrong hands. So remove your mask, hunter and tell me who sent you."

Naruto looks the man once over, comparing him to Sarutobi's description and then lays a single jade stone cut to look like a leaf onto the counter. The old man's eyes widen before he pulls Naruto with him into one of the back rooms besides the forge and then swipes blood over a seal next to the door.

"So the old monkey send you all the way from the Leaf?" the old man asks. Naruto just nods.

"Good, keep the mask on, otherwise it would be too risky for me and you. No names either. Tell me what he wants to know and I'll search that bo he ordered the last time we met. Must have been twenty years by now." the old man trails off.

"He just wanted to know if his contacts are still alive and why they stopped sending him information."

"Bloody intelligent of them. Village in lock down, but you must have noticed as you somehow snuck in and managed to go undetected. If anyone sends a message out and is detected he has to worry about a lifetime of prison or death, depends. They want to keep quiet about the war ending for now, but will break the silence after this years chunin exams most likely. Can't keep that up forever, you know. Those I know of still live, so he'll get his news, just a bit late. But then again I think I like the Fifth. Been doing the right thing up to now. Ah, there it is." Nearly faster than Naruto could follow he picks up a bo and seals it into a scroll.

"There you go, one order by the old monkey. Now get out, I don't want to get in trouble for harbouring a spy."

Naruto just nods and leaves the shop without saying a word, taking the gemstone with him once again. He had gotten the information the Hokage wanted.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi was content. He had all the time he needed to read his precious book while standing over the marker that held the names of those he considered family. No missions at the moment, because that brat on his team got himself hurt. No brats pestering him for training. Nobody wanting to make conversation with him. And best of all: Gai was out of the village with his own brats. Life was as good as it would get, at least in Kakashi's opinion.

* * *

Ducking into a small patch of trees, that held a close resemblance to mangrove, Naruto decided to leave a small group of Shadow Clones in the village. After all he could dispelled them before anyone could identify him and the additional intelligence would be most appreciated. Before he could execute the plan a voice in the back of his head interrupted him. He would have jumped at the sensation, if he was not used to it by now. "Why not do this the right way." the voice said, and Naruto was certain that is was neither Haku nor Zabuza. "I'll show you."

A image – no, not a image, a memory since he could actually feel everything that happened including how the chakra flew – popped up in his head. It was a memory of a fox slowly transforming into a human. A nine tailed fox. Naruto groaned. Of coursed the fox had to pop up and mess with his life once in a while. And he had made certain not to interrupt the fox during his long thinking sessions. Well, no harm done letting a Clone try – after all it wasn't as if a bodily change could affect the original. Or was it? That was the strongest and arguably the most cunning of the nine bijuu after all. And a prankster too boot.

But if it works it would be invaluable. A Transformation Technique, even a good one that is able to fool more senses, not just the eyes would get detected by most experienced ninja. After all one had to constantly emit chakra to keep up the image. Kitsune on the other hand were known as shapeshifters and their ability to keep the transformation under warps. If this was how a Kitsune transformed then it would be a great trump card.

Shrugging Naruto created half a dozen Shadow Clones and watched fascinated how they transformed successfully the first try. Two foxes, a dog, and old woman that looked as if she would die any moment and a little kid that looked like the average street rat he observed earlier. Nothing anybody would suspect of gathering information. Especially since Naruto could not feel the chakra of an active Transformation. Sure, if a sensor was curious he would detect vast chakra stores, but those were only clones, they would dispel before anyone would be able to question them.

Approaching the main gate was Naruto still wearing Tetsuya's cloth and mask. He curiously observed the construct, trying not to let it show. Two sets of gates, one closed all the time it seemed. Independent guards. Not bad, not easy to get through those if they wanted nobody coming in.

Using Tetsuya's unique signs he told the guards the he would go to check some seals. They only nodded and let him through. It did not seem to be a big deal or even uncommon for Tetsuya to do that.

Opening the gates just enough to let him through both Naruto and the four guards froze. There was fighting going on. "Rush in brat." Zabuza insisted. "You might be able to fake Tetsuya's death and then nobody will suspect any foul play, because they saw you fight and not just disappear somewhere unknown."

And Naruto did just that. Three enemies, three downed gate guards. One guard still holding his own, but barely. The attackers were clothed like Mist shinobi – mostly blue and grey cloth– but were from their fighting style most likely from Rock. One strong fist variation taijutsu, one earth technique user and a explosive expert. Even then that might be set up, but it just screamed Hidden Rock.

Thinking fast Naruto knocked out the explosive expert with a senbon in the neck. To everybody else it must have seemed like a kill, unless you knew enough about anatomy. 'A present to those in Mist. After all they should find some suspicious people, there was one lurking around at the shrine according to Raiga.' Zabuza only smirked at that thought of Naruto.

Seeing that backup appeared the remaining two attackers retreated. Naruto immediately followed, even when he felt the guards staying back and rising alarm. "Be careful," Haku said "Ao said something about five contacts, there could be two more."

Receiving the message, but not physically acknowledging it, Naruto sprinted after the fleeing shinobi. Throwing a senbon every once in a while he carefully looked out for an ambush. And there was the fact that he was slowly gaining on the attackers.

Not even thirty seconds from the gate he hit another enemy with a senbon, through the kneecap this time. "The ninjutsu user, good" Zabuza commented as the blond hit this enemy into the pressure point of the neck as well.

'Can't be too strong, chunin at highest.' Naruto thought to his tenants. "Or fully trained infiltration specialists – but then they would most likely not have fucked up at the gates already." Haku answered.

Seeing that his enemy was never looking back, even if he must feel him approaching Naruto discretely created a pair of Shadow Clones and took into the woods with one of them. He was careful not to make a sound even going as far as cushioning his steps with chakra. That was one of the exercises that made the Silent Homicide so effective. He still had trouble to generate the chakra field that would allow him to mask scent, but so did Zabuza and not to mention being a beacon for anyone who could sense chakra as long as he was using techniques. He could suppress the signature some if he was not using any chakra, but if he was using any he still hadn't figured out how to do it.

Suddenly a explosion occurred and Naruto had the honour of knowing how it felt to be ripped apart, courtesy to a clone's memory.

Also included in the memory were the faces of two other shinobi, both wearing Rock forehead protectors. Scowling Naruto ordered the other clone to attack with a short gesture. Seconds later one of the newly arrived shinobi was punctured by senbon needles. One through the heart, four hitting nerve clusters down the spine, two to the neck, one to each kidney, one to the left Achilles tendon, two disabling the joint of the right elbow and one deflected by bones that would have penetrated the brain. Dead on the spot.

Turning towards the new threat both Rock shinobi looked wary. Few would survive such an explosion on such short warning unscathed. Which would mean that their opponent was highly skilled. The taijutsu user performed hand seals and then his skin took on a grey-brown tan. The other shinobi pulled a hammer from his back.

Naruto did a double take. It was rare for shinobi to use a blade longer than 60 centimetre, all claiming it was unwieldy. Even the Sarutobi clan with their bo-staffs were considered not quite sane by other shinobi. Sure there were some exceptions, and as one of the Seven Swordsman he should not judge, but a hammer was very uncommon. Slow, heavy and no good on really close quarters. But then again, shinobi and sanity did not really mix.

Both shinobi charged and the clone was in trouble. Not only did that earth jutsu apparently also increase the speed, the other Rock ninja was even faster – faster than Naruto himself. From his age and collection of scars one could easily deduct that he was a veteran.

Coming to the same conclusion the original cursed. If the clone was dispelled then the veteran would know that he was not from Mist, after all the Shadow Clone was a technique unique to the Hidden Leaf, and the smoke of dispelling was very recognizable. Now that would be no problem if no enemy survived, but this was a freaking veteran jounin he was up against. In fact an entry from the last war in the bingo books came to mind. A-Rank threat, hammer, seal less earth techniques.

Coming to a similar conclusion the clone replaced himself out of the last hammer strike and then discretely dispelled. Naruto knew he had to risk his own hide or he would be tracked back to the Leaf and that could be catastrophic.

Quickly calling upon dense mist Naruto carefully moved around. Every so often he created a Water Clone, thankful that he had learned those, and left them standing still. Thinking his situation over thankful that the jounin was yet to move and what he assumed was a chunin stumbling around like mad, making a hell of a racket. He would have to move his Clones in to gauge their strength further. Thinking that it would never hurt to have backup Naruto created another Shadow Clone and sent him to do a task outside the parameter of the newly created clearing where the fight took place.

* * *

Sakura was thinking things over. Sure she had saved Sasuke's life the last mission with her first aid, even if he did not yet seem to have noticed. But when he finally did he would be hers and marry her, of that the pink haired girl was sure. But then again it was basic academy knowledge what she had done. She really should focus more on the other pages of her anatomy book too and not just on those of male reproduction organs. But first she had to visit Sasuke in hospital. She had visited him everyday and had already decided to keep it up until he was released from hospital. Surely he would notice her when she brought him some flowers later. She would have to get those soon, but then again Ino was working in her families shop today, or so she heard. Sakura did not want to think of the possibility of Ino following her to Sasuke's room. Even if some other girls seemed to have found it somehow. How she didn't know. They suddenly entered the room a few seconds after her one day.

Leaving her home after fending off her mother Sakura suddenly thought about the rest of her team. She was sure Naruto and Kakashi would visit Sasuke as well. Granted she had never seen them visit before, but neither had they visited her while she was in hospital after that one mission, but surely the Uchiha was different and more important than she was. Suddenly frowning she came to the conclusion that Naruto hadn't asked her out for a date in what seemed like forever. But then Sakura shrugged it off, after all now he would likely be someone else's problem. No reason to worry over.

* * *

Tenten was bored. She and her team were on just another C-Ranked mission, boarder patrols this time. She did not see the point in those. After all the political boarders of Fire Country did not overlap with the area of influence Leaf Village held. While shinobi villages were usually closely bound to a certain Country it did not mean that they received their missions only from there.

Sure, if they were to go against the inner peace of the Country the samurai and monks were likely to interfere on the daimyo's order, but otherwise shinobi villages were fairly independent. Their borders were not the same rigid constructs the Lords claimed for themselves, but more fast shifting lines of influence, if you were called somewhere and did a good jobs more people in that area or who had connections to that area were likely to hire you. Therefore reputation and a good quote of successful missions was necessary for a village to prosper.

Of course the village had to have the labour force to proceed all those missions otherwise they would be labelled as slow or not reliable. Therefore some ninja villages went to war. Less competition in numbers or even due to the complete destruction of a village usually left the winner with more missions and therefore more money coming into the village. Of course the daimyo was forced to financially support the villages during wartimes, because otherwise he would loose his own reliable forces, but that was it. Such conflicts were known as Shinobi Wars, in opposition to the common wars between countries. Sure those also called towards the attention of the shinobi, but mostly as support force for the samurai, rather than as the main fighting force.

And yet here they were, guarding a border that held no importance for them. Maybe those missions were ordered by the central government? Well not her problem.

Gai and Neji were currently swiping the thirty mile segment of the boarder, not that anything happened on the boarder to Tea Country anyway, while Lee was trying to use the trap making skills Naruto showed him to catch something edible.

Tenten on the other hand currently had free time, since she already slept, but her shift did not start for another two hours. Standing up to collect the kunai she had spent the last twenty minutes hitting a tree with she suddenly remembered the scroll Naruto had given her in a hurry between returning from his last mission and her leaving for this current one. Taking a good look on the scroll she saw a small symbol that identified it as property of a shinobi village. Not one that she recognised either. Suddenly exited what the blonde had dug up she took another look and recognised a bloodseal used to prevent unauthorised people from reading the scroll. But it was opened and recently at that.

Slowly opening the scroll she spied from the first glance that the content appeared to be secret techniques from Hidden Whirlpool. The name did not ring a bell beyond that it was destroyed during the last great war. Taking a closer look Tenten smiled. Oh yes she would like this scroll.

* * *

Sending in his clones was a bad idea. Or a good one, like you wanted to view it. While they had distracted the taijutsu user quite nicely for about twenty seconds the veteran did not even move besides the most basic dodging. Then he stomped with his foot once and everyone present on the clearing was stabbed by a stone spike. Even his own partner. Sure, it was only a glancing blow on the arm, but it did bleed quite a lot.

'Maybe he is as annoying as the Uchiha,' Naruto thought sending Haku and Zabuza into mad laughter. But even then the blonde had to admit: his enemy was skilled and likely to kill him. Now then he himself had decided to hunt them even if he held no loyalty to Mist, but this was something different.

If he wanted to fake Tetsuya's death then he had to kill the opposition as to not leave any evidence. That made waiting for backup impossible as well. He only had a short time frame to work with. And if he ran and one of the enemies was taken in for interrogation, well you know they'd find out about the two infiltration attempts not being connected.

So he had to move, planing on the fly it was then. After sending a shower of water needled towards the jounin Naruto attacked the taijutsu expert with his sword. But boy was he outmatched. The jounin hung back, seemingly amused to watch him struggle. After a few close calls Naruto replaced himself behind the chunin and was able to give him another bleeding wound at the other arm with an wind enhanced sword strike.

Not the best possible move, because the other, apparently strength enhanced arm, with whatever technique his enemy used, crashed into his ribcage. Wincing Naruto pulled off another replacement. He was becoming good with that one, seeing how often it already saved his life.

Checking himself over quickly he decided that at least one rib was broken, luckily non seemed to have punctured anything. Well at least his opponents right arm should be useless now as well. Add the injured left arm the overall chances seemed better. Then again the taijutsu specialist had just proved, that he was able to easily break bones even if injured.

He did not have the time to follow that thought further because the head of a big war hammer came crashing down where he stood. Another replacement was necessary. Standing somewhat at a distance he berated himself about not learning more offensive ninjutsu. He relayed upon the element of surprise and his skills with a sword far too much. Shaking this thoughts off he managed to hit the taijutsu user with water needles. At least that would slow him down further.

As it was he was running out of time, since backup from Mist was likely to arrive soon. He had to attack, otherwise he would be doomed anyway. The fast attack must have startled the younger Rock shinobi, because he did not defend himself against the first strike Naruto used and dodged too late. He paid with his leg for this mistake. But falling down he sent one last punch against Naruto, who because he was smaller than his opponent was once again hit onto the ribcage. Wincing again the blonde was sure that this time something had punctured his lung. Not to mention the bruising and broken bones.

Then again his second opponent, the veteran he was, had taken Naruto's short moment of distraction and attacked him from behind with his hammer. Not being fast enough the disguised Leaf shinobi paid for his inattention as well. While he did manage to get out of the chunin's reach he was now unable to move and was a sitting duck against the heavy strikes with a hammer. Having a crushed lower leg does that to people.

"Now now, you lost me my whole team so returning to Rock is not an option. And with all those Mist shinobi that will come to kill me I will at least take some pleasure out of killing you. You know you should have waited for backup and not charged into a fight so recklessly. It has now cost you your life." stated the Rock veteran, stamping onto the ground. That action caused the earth around Naruto to rise and start to crush his second leg. Crushing his teeth together Naruto somehow managed to keep back a scream.

As the Rock shinobi rose the hammer once again Zabuza stated, "Wow, this must be the shortest time ever that someone was a member of the Seven Swordsman."

'Thanks for the encouragement.' Naruto shot back, desperately trying to pull of a Replacement, but it seemed as if the chakra infused in the earth crushing his leg disrupted his ability to do so. Seeing the hammer fall Naruto struggled even harder.

* * *

Hidden Mist was in an uproar. For months now the village was in lock-down and many a spy had been executed. And now this. Infiltrators that had the gall to walk up to the front gate with faked identifications of people that never existed on Mist's payroll. Not even good forgeries, since not even the most obvious security seal of an original was present. After one of the guards tried to raise alarm discretely he turned around one last time and saw his comrades already down.

Luckily while he was desperately fighting to stay alive the inner gate had opened and one of their hunter-nin had pursued the fleeing enemy. As the guards of the inner gate called upon reinforcement to find and kill the attackers people began to panic. There hadn't been any serious fights within Hidden Mist since the last of Yugara's supporters had died.

It also shed light onto two weaknesses. One: The seals identifying intruders by the lack of the special identification seal on their person were too unstable, because everyone assumed the contacts were a malfunction. Two: The reaction time was far too slow. If it wasn't for that single hunter-nin it would be possible that the would-be infiltrators had already left the island once again.

It took them nearly ten minutes to gather two teams of ANBU to pursue the attacker.

* * *

Sarutobi returned from his morning workout to his office. Since he had started to use Shadow Clones the paperwork he had to actually sign had dropped by eighty percent and the paperwork he had to look over by fifty percent. After all it would not do not to be informed about the going ons in and outside of the village. And those readings over were nowadays done by clone as well.

Life was good so far, if it wasn't for those meddlers in the shadows. Up to now Sarutobi had identified seven different groups that interfered with anything from village security, law prosecution, mission rankings up to accessing sensitive information without permission and ordering his shinobi around without his knowledge. While the old monkey summoner was certain that at least one of those groups was attached to Rock's spy network and another to Orochimaru he had no evidence. Heck, in most cases he did not even know the penetrators.

Unfortunate he also did not know who he could trust, but was certain that one of the groups interfering with his work was headed by one of the village elders. So he had to play slowly and try to overturn as many plans as possible without showing his own hand. And he still didn't know what Danzo or any of the other groups really were playing at. For all he knew some of those could be dedicated to take out the rot that had itself found on the tree Konoha, and unfortunate seed their own.

Seeing the topmost sheet of paper on his desk Sarutobi's eyes widened. Finally, a way to get rid of those village elders. Then he frowned. It wouldn't do to dismiss them now, it would do more damage than good. Not with all those forces outside the village who were preparing for war. After all it would tip their hand and force them to speed up their own plans. And a civil war was the last thing they needed at the moment. Outsiders like his wayward student Orochimaru would jump upon a chance of the Leaf being weak.

The snake summoner was another problem on his mind at the time. He had dropped from the earth as if he was never there, but chance had it that at the same time the founding of a new shinobi village was becoming public knowledge.

Sarutobi regretted not having killed that man. Sure, most assumed it was blatant favouritism, but he and the other two Sannin knew the truth. Most likely not even Orochimaru himself guessed it. As Hokage he had been more focused on rescuing the victims of the experiments and ensuring that only the right people got their hands on the successful ones. He didn't even want to think what the war hawk Danzo would have demanded if the secret of the bloodline theft applied to the First's cells had come out. And immediately afterwards, when there was still the chance of facing him after pursuing him, Sarutobi was forced to attend a council meeting. As if the elders had no better timing. Then again one or more of them might have been involved with the snake anyway.

The old Hokage forced himself to abandon those thoughts. He would deal with the elders in due time. He was old enough to wait a little bit more.

* * *

Naruto saw the hammer slowly coming down upon himself when he felt an odd pulling sensation. Then he was in a world of pain as the heavy weapon crashed straight through his ribcage into the ground below. Then Naruto dispersed into a cloud of smoke. The Rock veteran's eyes widened in surprise.

Naruto was very surprised. Forced replacement with a living object was considered to be the highest level of the Replacement Technique and only rarely mastered even by jounin. And yet the shadow clone he had produced before sending his water clones in had managed the feat. Then again he would most likely be dead if not, but that wasn't the point.

When the clones memories were fully absorbed Naruto's mouth split into a wide grin. He could work with that. All those times reading dry and boring sealing theory had finally brought results. Sure he only knew the arrays making up exploding tags and storage seals, but for this it was enough.

His clone had spent the whole time etching a gigantic explosive seal around the area of the fight. It was not that different from a smaller tag, and the only difference in power between an array this size and an array that could be drawn upon a paper tag was usually the amount of repetitive combustion arrays that could be drawn without help of a magnifier. But what made this seal very different from your standard tag was that it wasn't pre-filled with chakra. No, his clone in a stroke of genius had decided to use the chakra absorbing part of the identification array sometimes used in storage seals and tweaked it a little.

Now every source of chakra inside of the certain seal his clone drew was used to power the explosion. And the whole chakra reserves of a jounin and a chunin plus all the plants had should be enough to blow up a nice junk of land. He brought his hands up into a ram seal and used a pulse of chakra to 'ignite' the seal. Seeing how big the explosion was he desperately pulled another replacement. This was bigger than expected.

Having sustained heavy burns all over his body, as well as another assortment of broken bones besides his two crushed legs and broken ribs Naruto used his last strength to summon a crane.

"Bring me somewhere safe please," he managed to ask for before the world faded black.

* * *

Speeding towards the direction where the infiltrators were assumed the two four man teams of ANBU suddenly came to a stop. "Now that's what I call an explosion." one of them declared in awe.

"Boys and their toy's." one, obviously a kunoichi stated.

"Damned suicide bombers." another remarked.

"Do we know who that hunter was that they said pursued the infiltrators?" the one who was most likely the leader asked.

"Heard it was Tetsuya." one of them simply said.

"Good man, he was. May he rest in peace. There is no way to survive such a blast if your enemy is intent on blowing you up."

"We'll have to check the scene anyway, though I don't expect to find a lot left."

* * *

AN: Yeah, it's Raiga's name from the anime filler. I took his character and changed things quite a bit. And his sword will be different too, not two, but one big blade, like the other three Swordsman from canon. He'll appear again. Somewhen. I think.

S-Rank missions in my opinion: Either do or die missions or such as the village would deny every involvement most vehement if failed. Of course the mission must be important and sensitive enough to be ranked as such. Being caught in an enemy village, that could very well lead to war? Definitive S-Rank, because the ninja executing the mission is likely to die if caught and the mission would lead to strained diplomatic relations.

Why did Kyuubi show him how to shapeshift? He lent assistance. Now he can rest for a while and do nothing and the oath will still be in effect.

Next up: Chunin Exams.

I'm not happy with how the scenes involving Hachiman played out. Especially the one involving Kyuubi. I'm releasing this anyway now, but I might modify those scenes somewhen in the future. Well, they didn't let themselves write better at the moment.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

During the early morning Takehiko stood in the courtyard behind his humble shop going through katas. After all it would do him no good to get rusty. There had been some attempts to rob his shop after all. And even without his eyesight he still was an formidable shinobi, despite his already high age. Sure he hadn't been in a serious fight for a while and those he had to fight of were mostly young upstarts who thought that power lies in flashy techniques, but he liked to think that he still hadn't lost his edge.

Well he did loose his eyes a while back, but that didn't stop him from being an skilled assassin like few others. Sure, he had gotten weaker, but as a jounin and a shinobi that preferred to strike in total darkness he was required to train up his senses and it helped him to get over his restriction.

Whipping the sweat from his brow he frowned. A bird was approaching, but it was far too big from the sound of the wings to be natural. Since there were only a few summoning contracts including various birds and their summoners were naturally rare, it did only leave that young boy who reminded him of his old friend so much. Sure, he did not share the same insane glint hat Kenshi had acquired over the years, but then again he hadn't been a shinobi for too long. Few shinobi could ever be classified as sane, and they grew increasingly fewer with both age and rank.

Slowly but surely the oversized bird landed within the courtyard, facing Takehiko. The old man was by now sure that it was one of the crane, and one of the more powerful of them at that. After all most of them were rather small, preferring to appear non-threatening, besides a few that were powerful enough to fend of nearly everything they faced.

"Hamasaki-sama, the fledgeling you allowed to sign our contract has called me to aid him, because he is severely injured. My tribe lacks the means to nurse a human back to health so I decided to bring him to you." the large crane spoke before placing a beaten and bloody bundle of human on the ground. How he was placed on the cranes back or even more surprising how he managed to stay there during the flight was everybody's guess.

"Very well, thank you for your assistance Tsuru-sama. I will take care of the young man." Takehiko answered respectfully. It wouldn't do to anger ones partners and comrades after all. While he had never met that particular bird, and once again questioned how many of them there were, the crane obvious had answered to Naruto's call. Maybe even his own personal summon or somehow connected with the Uzumaki. Well no good pondering the meaning of life, he had a wounded man to take care of.

With a last nod towards the big bird Takehiko scooped up the bloodied mess and entered his house. While he was sure that there were few survivors from the destruction of his home nearly twenty years ago he had managed to find a few of his clan with the help of his summons. He did not know how they did it, but they only ever said that their blood called them. Now there where seven of the once proud six hundred living in Kamome, including one of his granddaughters who had a bit of experience with healing. Quite a lot of others of his clan had decided to settle down in various other villages on the west coast of Fire Country, while other took to sailing the seas from the ports found in that area. If push came to shove Takehiko was sure that he could muster a force counting nearly hundred heads, but unfortunate few of them stronger than the average genin, lacking experience and the few veterans that were left were coming to the age where they slowly were losing their strength.

After informing his granddaughter Kasumi that he would need her help Takehiko looked Naruto over and was not happy with what he saw. The boy wore what would most likely pass as a hunter uniform from Hidden Mist, including even a matching forehead protector on his left arm. His torso and limbs were badly burnt, not helped by the fact that some of the fabric of his clothes seemed to have burned into his open wounds. There were a few shallow cuts, but nothing to worry about. His bones on the other hand were in bad shape. Not only were his legs all but destroyed, but several others were broken all over the body.

Taking in all the injuries he concluded that the young blonde was most likely caught within an explosion, even if it did not explain the legs.

Having been through war himself the old shinobi did his best to support his granddaughter as she patched up Naruto. After that it would all depend on the blonde if he pulled through or not.

* * *

Ao frowned. The ANBU sent out to take care of everything that came up connected to the infiltrators had brought him back information he did not like. While he was officially only head of Mist's hunter division most people knew that he was actually considered the number two in command after the Mizukage herself.

Two of the five shinobi had been brought in alive, good thing that Tetsuya was skilled enough to knock them out instead of killing them. It therefore had been confirmed that they were from Rock. On the other hand they had found another shinobi riddled with senbon, not exactly the subtle style Tetsuya was known for. That was one of the details that irked him. It just seemed somehow wrong all in all. Another was that the Ghost mask was recovered, broken, but still recognisable, but no body attached to it. If Tetsuya really had been caught in that suicide bombing the last two enemies performed then there should either have been a smoking corps plus mask or no mask at all.

Heck, they even found bit's and pieces of the two shinobi from Rock, otherwise Mist's shinobi would still be searching the island for survivors. The prisoners after all already gave up on their number of members.

Ao came to the conclusion that something was wrong with the picture, even if he could not place his finger on it where exactly something should have happened that was not supposed to. Well, no time brooding over the matter. They had to decide on appropriate response. Maybe instructing their Genin to kill of all competitors from Rock off...

* * *

Two days after arriving in Port Kamome Naruto woke up for the first time. Most of his burns were already healed, but his bones, especially his lower legs were still a problem. Kasumi had actually been very surprised at just how fast the young blonde healed. Then again, having a powerful spirit sealed inside of you had to have it's peaks.

As Naruto opened his eyes and mustered his surroundings he was surprised that there was someone else inside of the room. He tried to ask her where he was, but seeing how hoarse his voice was the woman forced him to drink quiet a lot of water first. Finally being no longer restricted by constant influx of water the blonde was finally able to state his question.

"Your in my granddad's place. Where did you expect the cranes to bring you, as injured as you are?" the woman answered him.

"Your granddad?" Naruto asked, not understanding, before he suddenly connected the dots "Takehiko?"

"Exactly." the woman answered warmly.

"What's your name?" the young man asked curiously.

"Kasumi. Don't worry, the old man already told me yours. Now it would probably be best if you ate something and then I will try to aid the healing of your bones along. For your legs I can do nothing unfortunate."

"They will heal, it might take a while, but I'm sure it will heal completely. I've been through worse."

"And how are you so sure of that young man? That mangling of your legs far overshadows a humans self healing abilities, and even with my medical knowledge I can't do much. Well maybe Tsunade of the Sannin would be able to heal that, but not anyone less." Suddenly more serious than before.

Naruto frowned, but then answered: "I dislike this information getting out, but it seems as if it has to. I've got a regeneration bloodline. Don't ask for details, all you have to know that those legs of mine will heal perfectly. Can't take more than a week. For the matter, how long was I out, I'm suspected back in the Leaf two weeks after I left."

"You arrived here at sunrise two days ago."

"Two days, huh? Then I should have eight days to get back, or send a message, but let's eat first."

* * *

True to his word and to the great surprise of Katsumi and Takehiko the blonde was literally on his feet again after six days. Now to Naruto the simple fact that it took him eight days to heal a wound, with six of them focusing chakra directly towards it, said a lot about it's severity. Since he did not have much to do in that time he wrote down every scrap of information he himself and his Shadow Clones had acquired during their visit in Hidden Mist. Another thing he took great pleasure in were the stories Takehiko told him about his old home before it was destroyed during the last great shinobi war.

He learned a lot about the various shinobi of Whirlpool, as well about their clans and what clearly set Hidden Whirlpool aside from the other villages. While it was recognised as a shinobi village quite a while after the first ones formed it was arguably the oldest of them all. After all five clans had banded together to found the settlement, that resembled more an oversized clan fortress than a village, quite a while before other clans followed their example.

Also the organisation of the village differed from Hidden Leaf. If you were not a member of one of the clans or were married to one you were not considered a member of the village. On the other hand everybody had basic training, even the ones who chose a civilian profession from the start. That led to a low overall population compared to the number of shinobi and a dependants on merchants from other villages in Whirlpool Country, but it did work. And if the village was attacked their forces suddenly swelled in comparison with what the enemy expected.

Also his opponent Tsubasa found his way into those discussions. According to Takehiko there once was a clan located in Whirlpool Country, the only one who did not join the village, that cultivated bats as partners. While the name did not ring a bell in the old man's mind, Naruto's earlier opponent was a different generation from the assassin and therefore it did not count that much.

When Naruto finally started his way home he had learned a lot more about his legacy as a descendant of Hidden Whirlpool and had met all the other members of Takehiko's clan living in the city. After all they were family. Sort of.

* * *

Sarutobi was nervous. While a crane summon had appeared with a message for him, Naruto was cutting in close. If he would not appear within the next hour he would have serious trouble to cover him. While he could very well let the whole thing slip, the paperwork involved would most likely be found at the most inconvenient of times and used against him.

Exactly that moment a serious looking blond entered the office. Sarutobi let out a sigh of relieve.

"Yo, old man. I've got a package for you." Naruto greeted him and threw a scroll onto the desk. A short examination showed that it was from an old friend of his, containing an order he had not even thought about since word of the civil war in the Mist first reached him.

Activating certain seals that would protect their conversation Sarutobi asked the returned shinobi: "Any news you've found?"

Dropping into a chair and closing his eyes for a brief moment Naruto nodded. He then opened his eyes and said: "A lot had happened in the Mist. I don't even know where to begin. Well, first of all the civil war has ended. The pro-bloodline faction has come out victorious. Right now the whole island is in lock down, no communication in or out and the only ones allowed out are those hunting for missing-nin, either to recruit them back or to kill them. I only made it in successful was because they have seals on their clothing, and if you lack those you will be found as an intruder."

The Hokage frowned and then asked: "You've written something about an injury in your letter. What happened there if you successfully infiltrated the village."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, such a typical gesture of his and replied: "Well, that's sort of a embarrassing story. When I left the village I ran into a group of Rock infiltrators, and I had to fight them off. They will assume that Tetsuya was killed when a sabotage specialist blew himself up. I've learned my lesson, next time I'm gonna use a Clone to blow that seal up."

"Anything else that I should know immediately?" the old man asked then.

Naruto thought it over for a second and then answered: "Well the current Mizukage is a woman named Mai Terumi, the bingo books list her as a C-Rank, but never mention her bloodline. And well, the Mist is preparing for war. They train their shinobi merciless, now that they are at peace for the first time as well as heavy recruitment with those who left the Country for some reason under Yagura. Plans are set into motion that the smugglers and mercenaries from the war get of light if they agree to act as supply lines for the village. I think they fear that some village will try to take advantage of their weakened state. I also think that they will try to feel out for an alliance during the Chunin Exams."

Naruto then handed over the collected intelligence that he had written down while he was healing from his injuries. Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, light his pipe and thought for a long time. Finally he slowly started to talk: "You know, young man, this information is very troubling. My contacts tell me that nearly every major village is preparing for war of some sort. Now even Mist. Due to the civil war nobody ever invaded there. The shinobi from Water Country are still known to be one of the few trained in sea-combat, what hampers the ability to transfer troops in great numbers there. Also most feared that the warring factions, with their numerous outposts and fresh experience in guerilla warfare, would unite if there was a common enemy. I agree with you that they will now fear that some outside force will try something. Therefore they collect their missing-nin who left do to leadership issues and not for other reasons, while they kill the others of in fear that they will cooperate with the enemy. Rock will now after the failed infiltration most likely change it's focus to Sand or us. The amassing in numbers they currently show does not allow the conclusion that they want to go against a minor village. Unless they expect another experience like Whirlpool. Cloud is equally likely to target Leaf or Mist, they lack the land access to Sand to seriously consider it."

Naruto had the feeling that the whole speech was more to order his own thoughts than for his benefit. Therefore he stayed silent while the Hokage was looking through him into the distance, obviously lost in thought.

When he snapped out of it he addressed Naruto once again: "War will come, one way or another. By now I think that if no outside force attacks within a year we will have to face a civil war. I know I can trust you. I know I can trust my ANBU, even if I have to be careful, because someone has his own forces running around, disguised as ANBU. I have a pretty good idea of what the clans are up to. I know what many of the high level shinobi think, because I constantly read their reports. Even if they disguise their opinions, read enough of those reports and you get a good feeling for them.

That makes up for about half of the force that serves under my command. I have started my investigations with that seal of yours and since then carefully manoeuvred that nobody finds out. I am already disposing of potential threats to the village and me, but at this time I have to be careful not to alert anybody with too much deaths.

I have started to have a few of those shinobi I trust sound out the opinions of those in their bracket, where they can do that without suspicion. I would like you to do the same for the Genin that graduated with you, maybe a few others of the younger ones as well. Try to find out where their loyality lies if push comes to shove. The position of Hokage? Their families and clans? Me as a person? Nobody in the Leaf at all? Be very careful not to let anyone become suspicious. And if you accept, try to focus on the orphans more than the others. As hard as it sounds it is easier to assume that a shinobi with family will fight for the Leaf village, in order to protect them, than to trust an orphan with no such ties. Also those with families at your age most certainly follow the path of their parents. Can you do that for me? It'll count as a C-Rank mission, weakly reports, classified for the Hokage's eyes only, but I think that should be clear by now."

"It would be an honour to be your ears and eyes, Hokage-sama" Naruto answers with a small bow, with took the old Hokage aback.

"Who are you, and what have you done to that blonde bundle of energy?" Sarutobi asked jokingly.

The two part ways laughing.

* * *

The next few weeks pass rather fast with routine. D-Ranks in the morning and individual training in the afternoon. Well, in Naruto and Sasuke's case, Sakura preferred to spend her afternoons gossiping, chasing the Uchiha or shopping. Naruto on the old man's prompting also spend his time reconnection with old classmates and trying to befriend others of his generation. While those who managed to get onto a team were busy most of the time, since the jounins seemed to take team training more serious than Kakashi, he still managed to reconnect to a lot of his other classmates.

He learned that those who did not manage to get onto a mentored team were sent back to academy, but their curse load was different than the previous. While the academy before the 'true' Genin test focused on general education and shinobi basics the classed for those who failed were separated into specialisations. Administration, interrogation, assassination, infiltration, field medic and the like. The three man teams, while most had a focus, were considered all around teams that had fixed set-ups so that the members were familiar with each other and therefore could perform to their best. Those with specialised classes were put together as the mission required. Also for those Chunin and in rare cases Special-Jounin was the highest achievable rank, unlike mentored Genin.

And while Naruto in his narrow, seal inducted world-view always thought that there was only his own class and no other the same year there were actual several. Ten classes a thirty students per year, separated on several buildings spread over the village. The main building with the survival training ground and the library had by chance been the one he had attended. While usually only one or two teams per class were chosen for further training with a Jounin, approximately ninety percent of the Students graduated into the ranks of the Leaf shinobi. And due to the time of the Kyuubi attack many of the graduates were orphans or raised by single parents.

During his talks with the others, mostly by Shadow Clone proxy, unless they offered to spar, Naruto went even a step further than Sarutobi asked of him and not only assessed the other Genin, but also tried to subtle manipulate them into a direction that was agreeable with him. Loyalty not to a position without question, but to an ideal or a person that had proven himself. In other words, the third Hokage and the idea of protecting the village even at the cost of his own life like the Fourth had done.

He might have not been as subtle as the Hokage would have liked, but it was an idea Naruto felt strongly about.

What Naruto didn't know was that behind his back the others of his generation also talked with each other and therefore he was established as a kind of leader figure for those his age. Sure, there were those who's parents warned him from coming into contact with the jinchuuriki, but since the conversation happened between peer that did not happened that much, and those of even further questionable affiliation, but those were a minority.

Especially the other orphans had taken a liking in Naruto. He was one of them, one of those many who had to grow up neglected in overcrowded orphanages, one of those who had to decide early in life what they wanted to do, or suffer the consequences. No surprise that many of them tried the path as a shinobi, since it would allow them to work at the young age of twelve.

This acceptance of him as a leader, of those he addressed as 'we orphans', a phrase taken from Tenten, led to some of them taking on his surname. According to the official version of events all the paperwork concerning the orphans had been lost in a fire, even if it was suspect since there should have been copies at every orphanage, the Hokage tower, as well as the offices of the civilian council, where the fire happened. As a result only very few of the orphans had a surname, and taking on the name of a fellow orphan gave them a sense of family.

Naruto took great care to discourage this notion, but his explanation that he was strongly disliked because of a combination of his pranks, his birth date, his whisker marks and the overall association of those facts with a certain kitsune only led them to tone it down. As long as they were among themselves, among 'us orphans' many continued to use it as a surname. Even pointing out that there were elements within the village that wouldn't hold back from using physical harm against him only forced him against the wall, since many of them wanted to know exactly what was going on. As it was he promised them to tell them the whole story when he could be absolutely certain that it would never get out.

The elements, who he always described as spies and others who want the village harm at large, were another reason why many of the orphans flocked to him. Others had their families for protection, but they were alone out there. And it was common shinobi knowledge that everything that you don't know is a potential death trap. Seeing how close Naruto seemed to be with the Hokage they concluded that he would warn them, when those elements would move against them. Because the old man was obviously the source of Naruto's information on many going ons in the village, even if he never clearly commented on them, but only made vague statements.

Those who came back to him every so often were included into the training Naruto went through. He even sometimes taught something out of his by now impressive collection of scrolls. Minor things mostly, an addition to the standard academy style taijutsu, some basics of close combat weapon handling, or if there were only those present that he trusted more even a few techniques like the Water Clone.

A few who used to be friends of his, before he was forced to leave the orphanage and due to the seal more or less forgot about, even managed to pester him from time to time to part with one of his precious scrolls or one of the weapons he looted from Gato, but even those instances were rare. It wasn't as if he was disliked at the orphanage, Sarutobi had made sure that the matron harboured no ill feelings against him, before he placed him there, but the civilian council held a lot of influence over all those who were no shinobi and were able to force him out of the orphanage.

Naruto suspected that the reason why no further C-Rank missions or even D-Ranks that would lead them out of the village come up was linked to the fact that he made good progress with his task and the weekly meetings seemed to be appreciated by the old man.

* * *

It was just another day. Kakashi had them waiting for what seemed to be an eternity before he appeared only to ditch them soon after. Naruto suspected that it had to do something with the messenger bird up in the sky, but then again, who was he to prove it.

Not soon after slowly making his way to his favourite training ground far off the village proper Naruto noticed a square rock following him. He smiled, because he knew who was hiding in there. Since he had sent clones all over the village to socialise with other Genin, he had expanded onto some of the older Genin, a few Chunin he knew either from his pranking career or otherwise as well as a few academy students. As such his clones had taken to spend quiet some time with his self proclaimed rival and played with him. Not that Konohamaru or his friends gasped that most of the games were actually training exercises in disguise. Or maybe they did, but simply didn't care.

Since Sakura was following him for some reason or other, maybe because of Sasuke's loud proclamation of her uselessness, he decided to put up a show.

"You know, rocks tend to be irregular in shape and rarely have eye holes." he spoke, mirth shining through.

"Ah, I knew you would see through my disguise, my youthful rival!" Konohamuru shouted loudly, his two friends nodding along.

Naruto was suddenly serious: "You haven't taken to spending time around Maito Gai? You do know that if you turn up in a green, tight jumpsuit I will no longer be you rival." Three heads nodded enthusiastic. "Now I guess you want to spend some time with me, right? Even if you should be at the academy. You do know that Iruka is pretty good at finding missing students."

"Iruka's not around, so we have the day off. You coming to play with us?" Konohamaru nearly begged.

"Sure thing." Naruto answered.

At this point Sakura interrupted: "Your playing with little children, pathetic. No wonder your dead-last."

"Who's that girl with the big forehead?" Konohamaru wanted to know.

"My teammate." Naruto answered and then added, "But you better run."

Sparing a glance to a fuming Sakura the young boy and his two friends decided to do just that and ran as fast as they could. Even if they were a lot smaller than the girl and younger as well they were gaining in distance. A statement of Sakura's physical condition.

Naruto decided to follow along, since he had after all promised to spend time with the three academy students.

Not even three corners later the chase stopped because a gruff voice called out: "That hurt, brat."

Coming around the corner himself Naruto saw that the chase had stopped and a shinobi, who's most noticeable features were face-paint and a hood the shape of cat-ears held Konohamaru up by his scarf.

The girl standing next to him, a blonde wearing purple clothing and a large fan on the back, who commented: "That might not be that good an idea."

The boy answered: "You know, as long as he isn't around there's no problem."

Then Naruto decided to interfere: "You know, it might cause an international incident if you were to attack the Hokage's grandson. And with the current political situation in Wind Country I doubt that you would be able to afford war."

While the jinchuuriki was calm on the outside he was slightly worried. Even though he still hadn't talked directly to the fox since that time in Mist, the tailed beast had gotten more active since then. He sometimes sent pulse of chakra through Naruto's pathways, or yelled something at the very back of Naruto's mind. Naruto was intrigued by this behaviour, but assumed that he wouldn't get a straight answer out of the trickster and therefore decided not to ask. So he had no idea what had caused the change. But at the moment he was worried because the nine tail kept on muttering about a 'crazy tanuki'. At high alert Naruto infused chakra into the surrounding water to find what caused the fox to react like this.

"Bah, weaklings all those Leaf shinobi. Can't even stand for themselves in a fight." the boy answered arrogant.

"Well, if you want we can take this to the nearest training ground and fight about this. Though that one might object." Naruto answered pointing up into the trees.

And sure, there was a redhead up there, hanging upside down from a tree branch, who had rather unique markings under his eyes. Not even two metres below sat a very surprised Sasuke, who hadn't detected the presence behind him.

The boy with his cat-ear hood paled as the redhead performed a Sand Body Flicker to appear next to him. "You are a disgrace to your village. I should kill you.", the boy with the dark markings around his eyes stated emotionless.

"But they started it." the boy wearing black answered.

"Shut up. Even if we are here to early doesn't mean you can play around." the obviously younger boy answered. Since he was now on the ground Naruto noticed the large gourd he carried around even more. "We should leave now." the redhead then stated matter of fact and turned to leave. The other two followed.

Sakura found her courage and asked: "What are foreign ninja doing here? Even if our villages are allied it is not common."

"Chunin exams obviously." Naruto stated, earning him an surprised glance by both his teammates as well as from the three academy students and a nod from the girl.

Sasuke in the meantime had jumped down and demanded: "What's your name?"

Once again Naruto answered: "Read the Bingo Book Uchiha. Even if they are Genin those three are pretty high profile, as they are the children of the Kazekage. Right, Temari?" The girl, who had hung back while her two companions were already on the leave nodded.

Walking away Gaara stated to his siblings: "That blonde is intriguing." The statement sent shivers down the other two's back, since they knew what their brother found interesting.

Temari frowned and added: "He is pretty well informed. Something one would expect from the big clans, but he carried no marking of one. Unlike the Uchiha, who seems to be ignorant about the world around him."

When Sakura took her eyes from the visitors she noticed that Naruto and his three followers had disappeared in one direction, while Sasuke had left into the other. She then slowly left herself.

Up in the trees, a bit away from the one Sasuke and Gaara had waited in, three Genin from Hidden Sound were talking. "What do you think?" one of the males asked.

"There was no real confrontation. Nothing to draw any conclusions from, but that redhead seems dangerous." answered the other male.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Hokage's office close to thirty jounin as well as Iruka as representative of the academy had gathered. Sarutobi was proud that he had managed to place the meeting so that Iruka was sent, because the headmaster of the academy already had an appointment.

The jounin were all those who had taken on a three man cell, that was still intact. From the average fifteen that were formed every year two usually only lasted six months until a member dropped out do to various reasons, from unsuited for duty to death. An additional five usually didn't make it to a year of duty together. After eighteen months most took their first chunin exams, if it wasn't in Rock, or for Hyuuga's in Cloud. While every major village hosted the exams every five years and it was custom to send a team, unless one was at open war, one usually only sent one team to villages you had strained relations with. While the minor villages now and then hosted an exam in-between the ones by the major villages, they weren't as popular, and the major villages rarely attended. After that period, even if the team didn't participate for whatever reason, promotions usually started. After all the exams weren't the only way to rise in the ranks. It also meant that only two in fifteen teams usually made it to two years of duty together without being promoted.

For the still intact Genin squads their respective sensei was demanded to attend this, but since the chunin exams were held in the Leaf this time there were a few who only had two Genin under their care, for various reasons. Iruka, since he worked at the academy, but was also involved with mission assignments and inspection of mission reports, was in attendance to evaluate if any other Genin should be considered for the exams. After all those two man squads had to be filled up somehow.

Usually rookie Genin, as in those only on duty for six month were rarely considered for the exams, but Sarutobi had made some observations about the latest batch. Not to mention the reports Naruto had made on those, even if he had little contact with the other teams his age, due to clashing schedules. Asuma and Kurenai were working their teams pretty hard, and from what he heard and saw Shino and Shikamaru might even be able to be promoted. Granted, they had to depend on their team a lot, but the ability was there. Kakashi on the other hand had two individuals who one might consider chunin level in terms of power in his team. Naruto might even depend on this chance, because all other ways of promotion could be vetoed by the elders. Well unless you counted battlefield promotion during wartime, not something he wanted to consider, but was forced to. Sasuke on the other hand might have the skill, but in Sarutobi's eyes, and Naruto's as well, lacked the mentality, the reverse of Shikamaru and to a lesser extent Shino.

Making his decision he asked into the room: "Do the sensei's of any of the new teams consider their teams ready for the exams?"

As expected Kakashi stepped forward and nominated his team. While he had held him in high regard for a long time, and was still trustworthy, the old Hokage had come to the conclusion that the team would be too much responsibility for the former ANBU, and that the man wanted to get rid of his teaching duty.

It did surprise him a little more, but not much that Kurenai and Asuma also nominated theirs.

Of course Iruka had objections to this. After all he was the teacher of that group until recent and remembered their problems. Naruto's inattentiveness, Sasuke and Kiba's hotheadedness, Ino and Sakura's fangirl tendencies, Hinata's shyness and Choji and Shikamaru's tendencies to slack off. The only one who had no such obvious flaws was Shino, and there he questioned if he was so suited as a squad leader, but then again other Aburame's had managed just fine, despite their lack of many words. But most of all was probably the fact the he was fiercely protective of Naruto since the incident with Mizuki. Every time his team went onto a C-Ranked mission the Hokage had to calm him down afterwards.

Kakashi answered quiet harshly, stating that they had grown and now were no longer students but soldiers.

Sarutobi interrupted there: "Iruka, calm down. I for one have seen the rigorous training teams eight and ten went through. In teams seven's case I think their accomplished missions speak for themselves."

The last statement peaked a few people's interest and one jounin of a veteran Genin team asked: "Care to elaborate?"

The old monkey summoner just smiled and recited: "2 C-Rank, 1 B-Rank and 1 A-Rank" 'Another C, B and S-Rank in Naruto's case, if you count the Mizuki incident.' he added mentally. Surprised whispers filled the room, but Iruka finally accepted the arguments, but decided to test some of the more likely unsure members of those teams.

* * *

Naruto was a bit peeved that Kakashi had told them of their nomination for the exams on such short notice. On the other hand he had already known that they were nominated from his weekly talk with the Hokage. He was confident that he would be able to pass, because he had expanded his technique arsenal since his visit in Mist. Then again the Leaf Village was famous for their three man tests. Other villages had other modi operandi, for example Mist had one man competitions, while Rock usually demanded five man squads according to their respective policies of few strong shinobi and winning through masses. Leaf on the other hand held to their famous three man cells. It brought them an advantage after all, since all other villages usually patched their team together for their current need and didn't held to long-standing fixed groups.

After Sasuke and Sakura had appeared they made it wordlessly into the academy, where the first test would be held. Well, not wordlessly, but Sakura's mindless chatter on the sight of the Uchiha didn't count anyway. The old Hokage's parting words from their last meeting were still in Naruto's mind. 'Remember, not everything is as it seems on first glance.' Not a new concept, but Naruto had a suspicion that it did involve the exam specificly.

Arriving on the second floor a sign reading 301 was guarded by two leaf shinobi. A reappearing feeling every time the fox's chakra pulsed told Naruto that there was a genjutsu active. He smiled once again. It was a very nice surprise when he found out that a foreign chakra the body is accustomed to made it a hell lot easier to recognise and disrupt genjutsu. For now the blonde was content in the knowledge that he had enough time to spare to watch Rock Lee letting himself be pushed around by the two shinobi guarding the entrance, who were under genjutsu as well. Naruto was quiet surprised how good an actor the taijutsu fanatic was.

Suddenly Sasuke disrupted the gathering of chunin hopefuls: "Remove that genjutsu."

Naruto groaned. Not only had it taken the Uchiha nearly a minute longer to find anything worng here, but he had also announced it out loud. "I swear Uchiha, you clan was born without common sense. You just had to tell all those weaklings here that this was a point to sort out all those too weak to even consider the exam."

Naruto was not even fazed by the killing intent the assembled Genin were directing at him and walked past all the staring others. He greeted the two guards with a nod before turning back to his team: "You two coming, or have you decided to give up?"

Needless to say that his team was running to catch up with him. Another team joined up with them. "Tenten, Lee, Hyuuga-san" Naruto greeted those as well. "So Gai finally decided to let you participate? Then again last year was Cloud, not a good choice for a Hyuuga, even if you had the skill for chunin."

The three greeted politely back, even if Tenten sometimes complained about the stick up the Hyuuga's ass. But then again the argument was true and Naruto had complimented them, so Neji had no reason to complain. In silence the six made their way to the real room 301, followed by a bunch of other Genin not far behind.

Before the double doors Kakashi and Gai waited. When Gai started to enthusiastically shouting about 'flames of youth' and whatnot Naruto simply grabbed his teammates by the sleeve and pulled them past. As soon as they passed Kakashi the jounin Body Flickered out with a last "Good Luck, you'll need it."

Entering the room they were immediately subjected to the collective killing intent of a large crowd of people. Naruto roughly estimated a hundred and fifty people, about a third wearing a Leaf headband. And then there were those who were still outside to consider. On Zabuza's prompting Naruto decided to show the crowd his broadest prankster grin and unleashed killing intent of his own. About a third of the competitor reeled back, while the others decided to up the level. Oh yes, Naruto had taken a liking in killing intent since he had learned it from the swordsman. The blonde was slowly rising his own killing intent when his concentration was suddenly broken, just when he was approaching what was considered unusual for a chunin. Ino had glomped the Uchiha with a loud squeal of "Sasuke-kun" and had caused the avenger to stumble into Naruto.

"I was having fun scaring that team from Hidden Grass over there." Naruto complained to the other blond who gave him a weird look.

"Naruto?" the girl asked hesitantly.

"Yes he has changed." answered Shikamaru from behind her. "You here as well? Troublesome" he than added towards team seven.

"So all nine rookies are here." stated an approaching Kiba for team eight. "We'll going to show you just how strong we have gotten."

"Well not all rookies, only those from our class, but then again what do you expect if someone decides to place five clan heirs and a clan prodigy in one class." Naruto interjected, once again getting weird looks by some of his classmates in attendance. He shrugged it off, not offering anything further, and then turned and leaned against the back wall of the room, leaving the banter to the others where he was soon joined by Shikamaru and Team Gai.

When another Leaf Genin left the crowd to approach the group Naruto frowned. "Keep it down, you rookies bickering isn't taken favourable by those over there." the silver haired young man told them loudly drawing the attention of the crowd, silencing them for a moment.

"I see what you are doing." Naruto stated after a few seconds of silence.

"And that would be." Asked the older boy sounding confused.

"You are drawing attention to us, stating we're easy targets, so that your team doesn't have to fact so many enemies and is able to slip by." Naruto stated matter of fact, causing many of the others to search for the silver haired Genin's teammates.

"You are wrong. You see, I took those exams before and collected quiet some data. I just wanted to help the rookies out a bit." The older one stated cheerful. "Let's see. I should have a info card on you somewhere. Ah, there it is. Uzumaki Naruto. Genin for six months. Teammates: Sasuke Uchiha and Haruno Sakura. A bit of trivia: known for pulling pranks all over the village and on occasion escaping ANBU chasing him afterwards. A budding sabotage specialist, huh? Not much other skills, pathetic tai and genjutsu, scrapped the ninjutsu part of the Genin exams, skilled with tools and no known bloodline. 53 D-Ranked missions, and the rest of the mission information is missing. Weird, I thought I copied all the public available mission information from your files in the library."

Naruto's grin had grown larger with each piece of knowledge. The information was rather outdated, and the fact that he had participated in classified missions didn't seem to occur to the older Genin. And with the information he had given the crowd was likely to underestimate him.

Of course the bits and pieces of knowledge of possible opponents had hooked the Uchiha. After all one could not expect him to look up such things himself. So he demanded from the older Genin: "Do you have any information on the Kazekage's children, the redhead in particular?"

"Sure thing." the silver haired shinobi answered, smiling once again. "One moment. Ah, here. Temari, Kankuro and Gaara. Don't have much on them since they're from another village and compete for the first time. The girl 's known as a prodigy of wind techniques, the middle child seems to be a puppeteer and the redhead, well, there wasn't any information on skill beside the fact that he never got injured on a mission. That's something, considered that he's been on 8 C-Rank and one B-Rank mission."

The Uchiha just scoffed at that. After all he had been on a A-Ranked mission, and while he got injured there, he came back healthy from their B-Rank.

The silver haired Genin added: "Mist, Cloud, Rock, Sand, Waterfall, Grass, Rain and Sound, all of them have sent the best their best Genin. Well besides Sound they just popped up a short time ago, no chance that they have trained their Genin to a competitive level."

That comment wasn't taken easily by the attending Genin from Sound who decided to attack the older Genin. One jumped high to throw kunai at the silver haired shinobi while the other cornered him where he dodged to and swiped at his face. The Leaf Genin was able to dodge, but his glasses shattered and he started to stumble, then he threw up.

The three Genin from Hidden Sound just watched proudly while Shikamaru called out: "Interesting, sound waves to attack his vestibular system." Yes, nobody could say that the Nara was dumb, even if he rarely showed his intelligence.

A large cloud of smoke appeared at the front of the room and killing intent washed over the room. "Quiet down, maggots. And no fighting without permission, that clear?" A voice boomed from the cloud before it disappeared, revealing a man wearing a black trench coat who had a collection of scars on his face as well as a group that had to be chunin in uniforms behind him.

The rather intimidating man said: "I am Morino Ibiki and will be your examiner for the first test. Now everybody grab a number so that we can spread you through the room. From now on you will only be referred to by number. That clear? Good. Before everybody gets started some ground rules. Rule one: No questions allowed. Rule two: Everybody starts with ten points. For every wrong or missing answer one point is subtracted. You will be scored as a team with up to thirty possible points. Rule three: If you are caught cheating you will lose two points. Rule four: If one teammember scores zero for whatever reason you fail. Now begin, you have one hour."

All that was said while keeping up a constant, but low pressure with killing intent. Most Genin didn't even seem to realise why they were suddenly so nervous, but it worked to weed out the weak. Naruto was thankful that paper test were the one thing Sakura was good at, because otherwise she might have already quit.

While he had caught on the subtle notion that cheating was allowed he decided to take a look on what he could manage. Cryptogram, check, Mathematics, skip, obscure knowledge about the second Hokage, the only history lessons he really paid attention to, check, Geography, that he had read up in library a while ago, check, formula of a poison using a certain seaweed, Zabuza knew that as it was often used in the Mist, check, another mathematics question, skip, a crossword of all things, half-solved, question about Fire Country diplomatics, skip, sort summoning contracts to their users, monkey, bear, toad, slug, salamander and a few other, check, a question on the mechanics of elemental manipulation, check, a blank question, to be posed 45 minutes into the test, had to wait.

All in all it did not seem that hard to Naruto, but thinking it over the cryptogram and the question about summoning contracts were the only ones possibly solvable by the average Leaf Genin, and even those were not granted. And assuming that the team needs 50 percent plus points to pass it would be a bad ending for most. So cheating was the method of choice. Naruto in the meantime decided to twiddle with the mathematical questions, because he knew he had no knowledge about diplomatics or the needed knowledge to finish the crossword. Then again his spy techniques included locating enemies and gauging their chakra levels quiet accurate as well as the knowledge retaining Shadow Clone, but those both were of little use for this task. Having a jounin living in your mind as well as the opportunity to leave clones to read the library for weeks had it's peaks, so he was positive that he would pass. And immersing himself into those problems allowed him to pass the time for the last question faster.

While he was going through his questions kunai got thrown by various proctors, stating that the Genin had been caught five times at cheating.

Shortly before the last question was revealed about a third of the chunin hopefuls were eliminated.

"Now onto the tenth question." the proctor announced. Looking up around the room Naruto noticed, that the Genin from Sand, who had threatened Konohamaru, just entered the room. Even if the proctor who accompanied him seemed off, Naruto decided to ignore it. After all it wasn't his job to find the cheaters.

"There will be a few additional rules concerning this question. Rules of desperation." Morino subtly increased the killing intent he had been projecting the whole time. "You will be allowed to chose whether you take this question or not."

"What will happen if we chose not to?" the blonde girl from Sand asked. Another subtle increase of killing intent followed. Naruto was intrigued by this mastery, because one who didn't monitor the feeling closely, which mean about every Genin in the room, wouldn't notice the increase, and just chalk it up as one's own nervousness.

"If you chose not to take the question your points will be reduced to zero and you fail along your teammates."

Some of the more excitable Genin started to shout that they would take the question on those rules.

"However, if you take the question and fail to answer it right you will be banned from ever taking the chunin exams again." Another sleight increase of killing intent followed. Even with Zabuza's expertise in that particular area Naruto was impressed. This took some well honed skill to pull off.

Kiba started to shout: "But there are some here who have taken the exam before."

"My test, my rules. You can always leave and try again next year." Ibiki simply answered.

Waiting a few moments the proctor said "Now then, if you not to attempt the question raise you hand and leave with your teammates."

Slowly Genin began to raise their hands, and after their teammate's numbers were called out left the room. Naruto observed with interest and noticed, that two single participants left, without any teammates. 'So they had some insiders with the right answers in here.' he concluded.

He saw many struggle with the decision, especially the younger Leaf Genin, but it did seem as if some villages either knew something was up or were to proud to quit. Naruto was certain that there was some ruse to this question, after all the first part wasn't what they were told.

At some point after the first rush had stopped the blond observed that Sakura was slowly and shakily starting to raise her hand. While he wasn't that concerned, because banning one from participating in the exams was not something easily organised and there were always other ways to be promoted, Sakura either had forgotten that fact, or never read up on it. She was considered the best concerning bookwork during the academy time after all.

Going over his options to stop Sakura from capitulating he frowned. If he still had that seal on him he would most likely shout something about becoming Hokage, or the likes. While it would further serve to make his enemies underestimate him, it would ruin his image. Well going with plan B.

Slowly concentrating he delved deep into his subconscious, pulling up the primal instincts of a hunter. In the early times killing intent was something that came natural, the feeling of someone used to death and ambush that a bigger predator was looking for him. The art to detect one's enemies by this feeling soon enough followed, immediately followed by research on how to suppress one's own predator instincts. At that time killing intent was less more than an annoying feeling at the back of one's head that you were watched and targeted by a hunter.

Some more inventive shinobi soon found out that focusing this feeling out would bring results as well, because an enemy that fears you might be more careful, but all in all is less of a threat. A feeling that got stronger the more of a predator the shinobi was. The more enemies he had killed, the more prey he had ambushed, the more superior foes he had stared down.

When a shinobi became experienced enough one would usually teach him the basics of killing intent. After all unconscious release during an ambush could still be detected, or at least set the enemy on edge. While few ever made it a real skill to use, Naruto had the advantage to have stared down two threats that could be considered monsters in terms of the killing intent they could release. Zabuza, who had worked on honing it as a weapon as much as possible and the Kyuubi, to whom it came naturally. Having faced both and maybe even gained a few splinters of their own skill his killing intent was impressive, for a genin at least. Gaara clearly outstripped him in terms of possible heights, but the Sand shinobi had a half-sealed bijuu on his side.

The effect was instant. While Ibiki's killing intent was present it was on a level where most genin did not even conscious realise it. Naruto knew that some civilians were able of that level. After all he had some experience with drunks how had something against a certain fox. Now most genin were unprepared. The killing intent that hit them was about what one would expect from a chunin and appeared so fast and without warning that most of them froze in surprise at least.

Some of those more experienced with killing intent, Ibiki foremost, were scanning the crowd for the source of the new killing intent. Naruto had his eyes closed and a grin that would not have been out of place on the Daemon of the Hidden Mist's face when he said: "Sakura, don't."

Then he abruptly cut off the release of killing intent, suppressing it to the point where even very skilled shinobi could no longer detect it. The message was clear to everyone in the room and the pink haired girl slowly let her hand sink down. She clearly got the message and understood the implied threat if she did not act accordingly.

Ibiki on the other hand now faced a dilemma. If he resumed projecting his killing intent he would have to considerably rise it, therefore destroying the stealth aspect he used up till now. Deciding to act quickly he used the complete absence of killing intent for a moment, what made some nearly as nervous as before, because a suddenly vanishing predator can't be a good sign, now can it, to ask a last time for genin wanting to give up. On the inside he was impressed with the young brat to challenge him so openly.

The other two rookie teams, while toying with the idea before, could not back down now that team seven wanted to take the question. Similar many of the older genin faced the dilemma that they did not want to be shown up by their juniors. Therefore very few teams actually left the room.

With a wicked grin spreading on his face Ibiki announced: "Well then for everyone who had decided to stay I have only one last thing to say. Congratulations for passing the first test."

Chaos ensured.

While Ibiki Morino was explaining the importance of information gathering as well as the do or die decisions sometimes coming up on missions, Naruto was mustering the remaining competition. Eighty-four Genin, twenty-eight teams. One from Rock. Two from Waterfall and Mist. Three from Rain and Grass. Four from Sound. Five from Sand. Eight from Leaf. Three of them rookie teams.

It did surprise him that all four teams from Sound had passed as well as five of six from Sand. That the team from Rock and all two from Mist had passed was less surprising, because those villages obviously only sent the very best.

Turning his thoughts back to the proctor of the exam Naruto listened to the speech on how some missions had to be done, even if one did not know what lies ahead.

And then a ball of something crashed through the window. It turned out to be a woman wearing a beige trench coat and featured dark purple hair. She yelled out: "No time for celebration brats. I'm Anko Mitarashi, the examiner of the second test. Follow me!"

Ibiki commented rather dryly: "Your early."

* * *

AN: Well, it has been a while. This chapter, and to be honest the next one as well, is a pain in the ass. I have rewritten this whole thing no less than two times and have made minor adjustments even more often. I'm still not happy with it, but it is somewhat acceptable. Therefore I will upload it now, otherwise it will likely take another month till I'm somewhat happy with it.

As mentioned before the part of the next chapter that I have started is just as difficult to write. I'll try to get it done quickly but my gut feeling tells me it's unlikely. I somewhat regret the decision to write the chunin exams at all in a form close to canon, since many of my problems stem from the fact that I am keeping close to canon, but in the end the rest of the storyline would not work out otherwise.

Similar were tries to construct other tests, but it just made sense to use one psychological part and one simulated mission. As far as simulated missions go I had a few different ideas, but the form that was used in canon was in the end probably the easiest.

If there are any jumps of thought in there that are hard to follow tell me. Those will likely come from constant rewriting and well, after a time I no longer see them, because it's logical to me.


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